The Rutgers University Student Chapter of the North American Society of Trenchless Technology recently visited ULC’s CISBOT job site in Camden, NJ. Led by NASTT Co-Founder George Ragula and PSEG’s Sergey Wortman-Vyan, the group of Rutgers students had firsthand experience watching and learning about the operations of the advanced robotic technology.
ULC’s CISBOT robot technicians explained the details of the Camden job, how CISBOT is operated and then launched the robot into the live gas main.
“It was extremely exciting and impressive to learn and watch the live launch of CISBOT,” said Kyle Boehme, Co-founder and President of the NASTT Rutgers Student Chapter. “Attached only to a tether cable, CISBOT was driven 130 feet away from the work truck to reach its first joint of the day where it would be drilling and renewing leaking joints – our group has never seen anything like it.”
PSEG is utilizing ULC’s CISBOT to rehabilitate a gas main that was experiencing significant leakage. If conventional trenching methods were utilized to replace or repair the pipe, rather than CISBOT, it would have caused extreme disruption to the local community due to the conditions of the job site. With CISBOT, the energy utility is effectively and efficiently maintaining the integrity of their infrastructure and ensuring that the public or gas service is not disrupted.
“Educating engineering students on new technologies, especially advanced technologies like CISBOT, is extremely important to the future of the trenchless industry” said George Ragula. “By showing the members of the student chapter real-world uses of highly successful trenchless technologies we are keeping them updated on the ever-growing technologies available in trenchless construction.”
Photos provided by Rutgers NASTT Student Chapter Co-Founder and President, Kyle Boehme.
