Inspecting aging sewer pipes has traditionally been slow, dangerous, and costly. Workers relied on tethered crawlers or had to physically enter hazardous tunnels. In Fraser, Michigan, Wired says a collapsed sewer in 2016 caused a massive sinkhole, damaged homes, and forced taxpayers to shoulder around $75 million in repairs. Disasters like that show why cities need smarter, safer ways to protect their infrastructure—and “poop drones” might be the heroes they’ve been waiting for.
Drones like Elios 3 and Asio X are specifically designed to navigate dark, cramped spaces. They’re equipped with powerful lights, rugged protective cages, 4K cameras, and lidar sensors.
That means these devices can fly through sewer pipes and capture detailed data without putting human workers at risk. Using these drones, inspections that once required large teams and traffic closures can now be handled more efficiently with just two operators.
Technology is also transforming how inspection data is analyzed. Software like SewerAI processes footage from the “poop drones” and uses artificial intelligence to detect cracks, blockages, and structural defects. What once took weeks or months can now be completed in days, sometimes within 24 hours, allowing cities to respond to problems before they turn into emergencies.
Macomb County, Michigan, has reportedly become a leader in adopting this technology. By combining drone inspections with AI-driven analysis, the county has dramatically reduced costs, increased inspection speeds, and improved defect detection accuracy. This is definitely one of the more creative ways we’ve seen to use drones, and it beats attack drones designed to take lives instead of save them.
The system even allows older inspection footage to be reanalyzed, catching issues that might have been missed in the past. As more cities invest in these “poop drones” and other AI-powered tools, inspections will become safer, faster, and more reliable. Instead of reacting to failures after they happen, cities can maintain infrastructure proactively and protect communities.
