🎙️ America’s drinking water infrastructure is aging—and out of sight can’t keep meaning out of mind. But what if we could see inside the systems that keep our cities alive to make smarter and more timely repairs?
Motmot is building inspection robots that do exactly that—swimming through water pipes under cities like Detroit, delivering critical insights before leaks turn into catastrophes. This week on TOOL OR DIE, we sit down with the company’s chief engineering officer Cale Colony (and graduate researcher at University of Michigan’s field robotics program) to talk about field robotics, municipal decay, and the long tail value of putting cameras—and AI—where no one’s looked before.
From his Iowa farming roots to submarine design, Cale walks us through the evolution of agricultural automation, the limits of vertical farming, and why he sees water infrastructure as one of America’s most neglected and fixable challenges. It’s a conversation about the future of cities, the power of simple solutions paired to complex machinery, and the hidden vascular system under our streets.
These are the first of several podcasts recorded at Newlab Detroit on the Michigan Central campus. Thanks to both for hosting us—we’re long on Detroit’s future as a manufacturing powerhouse that draws on the genius and know-how of its engineering and scaling experts.
Timestamps:
01:15 – The Motmot mission: building tiny robots for municipal water pipes
04:00 – Hardware as a service: inspection robots, tethers, and recovery
06:45 – Design constraints: no GPS, SLAM in pipes, power vs communication
10:10 – Blue Robotics chassis, neutral-buoyancy tethers, and hull adaptations
13:00 – What kinds of pipes matter most: potable vs sewer vs steam
15:00 – Where old cities lose water—and why most don’t notice
18:30 – How cities like Detroit or Flint overbuilt their water infrastructure
22:00 – GIS systems, asset mapping, and the cost of knowing what you own
25:00 – Sensors: vision, acoustics, ultrasonics, and future modular packages
28:00 – Tuberculation, sediment buildup, and keeping the robot centered
30:30 – Modeling pipe decay with visual data (and not knocking off the rust)
32:00 – From submarines to agtech: the founder’s path through robotics
35:00 – What robotics could do for diversified farming and food sovereignty
38:00 – The case for small, smart, bio-diverse farms—and robots to support them
41:00 – Lessons from vertical farming failures and what comes next
Key Topics:
Why America’s water infrastructure is leaking—and no one’s looking
Design and deployment of modular inspection robots for public utilities
The value of mapping municipal water systems, especially in older cities
Tuberculation, corrosion, and the hidden life cycle of metal pipes
Agricultural robotics and the future of biodiversity-driven farms
Why vertical farming failed, and what could work instead
Using automation to re-localize and decentralize food and water systems
Robotics as a long-tail strategy for environmental and civic resilience
🔧 Learn more: Motmot.ai | University of Michigan Field Robotics Group
Sponsor
This episode of TOOL OR DIE is brought to you by DOSS, the adaptive ERP.
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TOOL OR DIE is hosted by Joel Johnson, former science & tech journalist turned corporate strategist who built brands like Gizmodo, WIRED.com, and Wirecutter; and Alex Roy, General Partner at New Industry Venture Capital (NIVC.us), known for breaking the Cannonball Run record and his work in autonomous vehicles. Each week, they speak with the people actually rebuilding American manufacturing—one machine, one company, one idea at a time.
Follow them at:
LinkedIn: joeljohnson | alexroy
X: @joeljohnson | @alexroy144
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