Damaged, leaking pipes are not only a nuisance to clean up after, but they can also create major inefficiencies within water delivery systems, leading to a loss in both the water itself and the electricity required to disinfect and pump it. Over the past decade, water pipeline detection systems have been upgraded to include state-of-the-art sensors, which can precisely locate where a leak is. Due to their high price, Manivannan Sivan designed his own leak detection system that can be produced for far less cost.
Sivan’s project involves the placement of two microphones next to a pipe and reading the acoustic signatures they pick up. For this task, he chose a single Arduino Portenta H7 and an accompanying Vision Shield due to its pair of onboard mics and fast processor. He then collected samples for no water flow, water flow without leaks, and water flow with leaks. The resulting machine learning model achieved an accuracy of 99.1% and a mere 0.02 loss.
After deploying the model to his board and placing it near a pipe, the Portenta now had the ability to identify when the pipe started to leak — and potentially notify someone thanks to its wireless connectivity, if Sivan decided to add that feature.
For more details on this project, read its write-up here on the Edge Impulse blog.
