Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Robots for Urban Water Supply Networks: A Review and Prospects

With the expansion of urban water supply networks and the increasing visibility of aging infrastructure, traditional manual operations and maintenance can no longer meet the demands for high precision, low disturbance, and trenchless intelligent solutions. Robotic technology is currently one of the most advanced technologies for the operation and maintenance of water supply pipeline networks, and it is steadily gaining popularity in industry research. This paper provides a systematic review of the current research status of intelligent operation and maintenance robots across three major functional areas: detection, cleaning, and repair. It describes in detail the technical principles, application advantages, and current constraints of different kinds of robots. Multi‐source sensors are used by detection robots to locate and identify defects. Cleaning robots remove dirt using mechanical, water jet, and ultrasonic technologies. Spray‐in‐place lining and UV curing techniques are used by repair robots to accomplish trenchless rehabilitation. This review contributes a functional‐performance matrix that reveals a critical gap in robots capable of both high‐traction cleaning and precise inspection, pointing to cable‐free, autonomous navigation, intelligent control, modular and reconfigurable designs as the most urgent research frontier. Provides a clear future development direction for intelligent operation and maintenance robots.