TLDR: Affostec received the Mail Business Vice President Award for Solutions at the 12th Korea Big Data AI Awards. The company was recognized for its innovative AI and big data-based precision predictive sewage management system, which utilizes smart maintenance robots and AI analysis to detect and predict issues in aging sewage pipes, aiming to prevent safety accidents and reduce maintenance costs.
Affostec has been honored with the Mail Business Vice President Award for Solutions at the prestigious 12th Korea Big Data AI Awards. The accolade acknowledges Affostec’s groundbreaking development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and a big data-based precision predictive sewage management system. This innovative solution addresses critical safety concerns arising from aging sewage pipes and urban ground subsidence.
The core of Affostec’s award-winning system is a GIS-based smart sewage maintenance robot coupled with an AI and big data analysis platform, developed entirely with the company’s proprietary technology. This integrated approach allows for the accurate detection of minute structural issues, such as cracks, hollowing, and erosion, in millimeter units—details often missed by traditional CCTV or visual inspections. Furthermore, the system is capable of predicting potential accidents in advance, a capability that garnered high praise from the award committee.
The smart maintenance robots are equipped with an array of advanced sensors, including LiDAR, 3D cameras, radars, RTK-GPS, azimuth sensors, and 2-channel cameras. These instruments collect real-time 3D point clouds and time-series data on the internal conditions of sewage pipes and surrounding ground. The collected data is then fed into an AI analysis engine, which learns abnormal patterns ranging from leakage to hollowing and subsidence. By synchronizing this data with weather information, the system automatically calculates damage probability maps and prioritizes maintenance tasks. On-site managers benefit from real-time dashboards and alarm systems, enabling immediate response to identified issues.
Affostec projects that its predictive management system can lead to a significant reduction in maintenance budgets, estimated at 20-30%, and proactively prevent large-scale recovery costs. Beyond financial savings, the system is expected to enhance public safety by preventing incidents such as pedestrian falls and vehicle accidents caused by infrastructure failures.
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Looking ahead, Affostec plans to leverage this achievement to expand its multimodal data and AI technology applications to other urban infrastructure, aiming to build a preemptive and intelligent urban management model across cities. Kang Cheol-joon, CEO of Affostec, emphasized the company’s commitment, stating, “We will use AI and big data to protect public safety and secure core technologies that can be expanded to AI cities to lead future smart cities.”
