ANN/THE JAPAN NEWS – A start-up founded by former Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officials is launching a service to forecast underground sewage pipe damage risks using satellite data and artificial intelligence (AI).
Following a sinkhole incident in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, believed to be caused by damaged pipes, the start-up aims to improve the efficiency of risk assessments during sewage pipe inspections.
The Tokyo-based company, Tenchijin Inc, was established in 2019.
The company received a capital contribution of JPY10 million (SGD89,300) from JAXA, and it is allowed to use JAXA’s intellectual properties such as technology to analyse data from satellites.
The company aims to begin a business in which the risk of damage to sewage pipes is forecast in several stages, the stages are indicated in different colours on maps and the company provides the analysis results to local governments, starting in the latter half of fiscal 2025.
To make forecasts, data from a geostationary meteorological satellite Himawari and Daichi-4, an advanced land observing satellite that uses radar, are utilised so that ground deformation and other signs of sinkholes can be detected. The company’s own AI analyses the data together with information possessed by local governments such as when sewage pipes were laid, and then it calculates the risk of damage.
The company plans to finish a technology test in the first half of fiscal year 2025 and begin the service as a commercial business.
According to statistics from the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, there were about 2,600 accidents on roads or sinkholes caused by trouble related to sewage pipes in fiscal year 2022, and 45 per cent of them occurred from June to August when ground surface temperatures usually rise.
