Highlvl Underwater Robots in Hydropower & Water Conservancy
Overview
Dam underwater inspection solutions: Hydropower and water conservancy projects are strategic infrastructure for national water and energy security. Dams, hydropower stations, diversion tunnels, pumping stations and gates operate for decades underwater or in high humidity, and their structural safety directly affects downstream lives and property as well as regional power supply. Conventional diver inspection is depth-limited, risky, slow and subjective, and cannot support the fine-grained maintenance that modern facilities require.
With deep-water capability, HD imaging, precise measurement and real-time data transmission, the ROV has become core equipment for underwater inspection, defect diagnosis, desilting, obstruction removal and construction support in hydropower works, moving the industry from scheduled overhauls to condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Core application scenarios
1. Upstream dam face and foundation inspection
The upstream face is exposed to water pressure, scour, cavitation and freeze-thaw cycles, and is prone to cracks, leakage, concrete spalling and ageing waterstops. The ROV conducts systematic sweeps along the face, using HD cameras and sonar imaging to identify surface defects and quantifying crack length and width and spalled area with 3D laser scanning or photogrammetry, giving dam safety assessment and repair design accurate data.
2. Stilling basin and spillway damage inspection
High-velocity flow through spillways and stilling basins causes severe scour and cavitation, and can lift floor slabs, scour side walls and destroy energy dissipators. After a flood release the ROV enters the basin quickly to measure scour depth and extent and record structural damage in HD, supporting repair planning and the safety margin for the next release.
3. Underwater inspection of gates, guide slots and hoisting equipment
Gates sit in water for long periods, and leaves, waterstop rubber, guide rails and sills suffer corrosion, deformation and silt jamming. The ROV inspects at millimetre detail to find rust spots, weld cracks, failed seals and jammed debris, and can clear silt from guide slots with a manipulator to keep gates operating smoothly and flood control reliable.
4. Desilting and debris removal at intakes, trash racks and waterways
Silt, floating debris and weed growth reduce flow at hydropower intakes, pump forebays and diversion tunnel inlets and can even block units. With a high-pressure water jet, grab or cutting tool, the ROV removes silt, entanglements and large debris around the trash rack under visual control, restoring flow capacity and avoiding unplanned outages.
5. Internal inspection of diversion tunnels and penstocks
Long diversion tunnels and penstocks are confined, dark and turbulent, making manual inspection very difficult. A compact ROV travels inside the tunnel or pipe, cruising along the wall to inspect lining cracks, leaks, steel corrosion, weld defects and silt, and fuses sonar and camera imaging into a 3D model of the interior for defect location and repair planning.
6. Maintenance support for turbines and draft tube systems
Turbine runners, guide vanes, runner chambers and draft tubes suffer cavitation, wear and sediment erosion over years of service. With the unit stopped or at partial load, the ROV enters the flow passage to inspect and measure damage on the wetted surfaces and assess cavitation depth and repair intervals, and supports lifting alignment, debris removal and weld sampling during overhauls, shortening the outage.
7. Reservoir bank and sedimentation surveys
After years of operation, reservoir banks may slump or collapse, and sediment on the bed changes effective storage and intake elevations. The ROV maps and assesses the stability of submerged bank slopes, and sonar-surveys and samples sediment distribution and thickness, providing baseline data for operating rules, dredging plans and storage-curve verification.
8. Underwater facility maintenance at pumped-storage plants
Upper and lower reservoirs, inlet and outlet structures, waterway systems and reversible units at pumped-storage plants operate at high head with frequent starts and stops, so underwater facilities carry a high damage risk. The ROV meets the precise control demands of high-head environments and periodically inspects inlets, tunnel linings and unit flow passages to keep peaking and frequency-regulation assets reliable.
Technical advantages
| Capability | Technical feature | Engineering value |
|---|---|---|
| Deep-water operation | Working depth from tens to hundreds of metres | Meets deep-water inspection needs at tall dams and large reservoirs |
| Fine HD imaging | 4K camera fused with multibeam or scanning sonar | Millimetre-level defect identification and measurement |
| 3D reconstruction | Photogrammetry or laser scanning builds a 3D underwater model | Spatial defect location, trend tracking and repair quantity calculation |
| Precise control | Hovering in current, close-to-wall flight, depth and heading hold | Stable work in complex flow without striking the structure |
| Multi-role payloads | Rapid changeover between manipulator, water jet, cutter and sampler | Integrated work from inspection to desilting and debris removal |
| Long endurance | Supports several hours of continuous operation | Covers full inspection of large facilities |
| Traceable data | Full recording, coordinate annotation and automatic reporting | Builds facility health records that support predictive maintenance |
| Zero risk to personnel | Replaces divers in hazardous waters | Removes the risk of work in deep, fast-flowing or toxic water |
Typical engineering applications
- Concrete dams: upstream face crack and spalling inspection, foundation leakage detection, waterstop condition assessment
- Earth and rockfill dams: integrity inspection of the seepage-control face, upstream silt survey and underwater survey of bank slides
- Spillways and energy dissipation works: stilling basin scour measurement, spillway cavitation inspection and condition assessment of dissipators
- Gate systems: gate leaf corrosion and deformation inspection, guide slot desilting and support for waterstop replacement
- Water conveyance and power generation systems: intake trash rack desilting, diversion tunnel lining inspection and internal penstock inspection
- Turbine units: runner cavitation measurement, guide vane clearance checks, draft tube desilting and overhaul support
- Pumping stations: intake channel inspection, pump impeller damage assessment and forebay desilting
- Pumped-storage plants: upper and lower reservoir inlet inspection, high-pressure waterway lining inspection and unit flow passage maintenance
How we support you
For hydropower construction companies, river basin authorities, power generators and O&M contractors we provide:
- Equipment customization: ROV platforms and special tools tailored to dam type, depth, flow velocity and space constraints
- Inspection services: third-party underwater inspection and assessment reports for dams, gates, tunnels and units
- Technical training: dedicated training in ROV operation, underwater inspection standards and data analysis
- O&M support: periodic inspection plans, underwater health records and trend-warning systems
- Construction support: visual assistance and quality monitoring for underwater desilting, debris removal and repair work