Water main leaks are expensive to find and expensive to miss. Traditional leak detection means surface listening equipment, pressure zone analysis, or digging — all of which are slow, disruptive, and imprecise.
Motmot is a Detroit-based robotics company that gives water main contractors a better option: small autonomous robots that enter a live water main through a standard fire hydrant and detect leaks from inside the pipe, without excavation and without taking the main out of service.
Motmot's robots carry an acoustic sensor specifically designed to detect active leaks and flow disruptions inside the pipe wall. As the robot traverses the main, it logs the location and acoustic signature of anomalies — identifying where pressure is escaping, where flow is disrupted, and where deterioration is concentrated.
For a water main contractor, that data answers the question you most need answered before mobilizing: where exactly is the problem, and how bad is it?
Without it, you're scoping rehab work from surface break records and age estimates. With it, you have a pinpointed condition map of the main before a single crew member is dispatched.
Motmot's Motbots are compact robotic systems small enough to deploy through a fire hydrant — no excavation required, no service shutdown, no dewatering. The robot enters the pressurized main, travels the pipe segment, and collects data continuously.
Two configurations are currently field-deployed:
| Configuration | Length | Width | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| J-Series Gen 1 | 11.25" | 3.6" | 3.2 lbs |
| J-Series Gen 2 | 14.25" | 5.5" | ~6 lbs |
Both carry the same sensor suite:
The acoustic and pressure sensors together give you a high-confidence picture of where leaks are occurring and how severely they're affecting flow — data that previously required either guesswork or excavation to obtain.
If a utility has commissioned a Motmot inspection before putting a rehab project out to bid, the condition data should be available in the project documents. Use it to verify scope: lining selections, repair locations, trench counts, and excavation depth are all more defensible when backed by internal condition data rather than surface estimates.
If no inspection has been run, a contractor can recommend one before final bid submission. A single avoided change order typically justifies the cost.
When a leak is suspected on a live main — based on pressure anomalies, increased pumpage, or customer complaints — Motmot can be deployed to pinpoint the location before excavation begins. Instead of digging multiple test holes along a corridor, you go in exactly where the data says to go. That's faster mobilization, less restoration, and a tighter scope for the repair crew.
After a repair, lining installation, or main replacement, a follow-up Motmot run confirms the fix held and flags any residual anomalies. This supports final inspection documentation and closeout — especially on GLWA and DWSD contracts where condition verification is a standard closeout requirement.
Beyond leak detection, a Motmot inspection report includes:
The leak data is the most actionable for contractors in the field. The wall condition and geometry data is most useful for design engineers scoping the rehab method and structural approach.
Motmot is headquartered at NewLab in Detroit, is a Detroit Startup Fund grantee, and completed its first Michigan pilot in August 2025. The company has NSF SBIR Phase 1 and 2 Fast Track funding ($1.55M) and active utility partnerships in the GLWA region.
Michigan's drinking water infrastructure holds a D+ grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers, with an estimated $7.5 billion in needed investment statewide. Leak detection and condition assessment are early steps in every dollar of that spend. Contractors who understand where inspection data is being generated — and how to work with it — will be better positioned to capture that work.
Contact Motmot at [email protected] or (313) 513-8600.
Source: Motmot — motmot.ai