Lindsey Elliott is all about bolts. At last year’s Bolting Symposium, the 13th annual, she played “Bolting Bingo” with “torque dorks” and discussed how to improve pipe infrastructure.

Elliott and her startup Nexterity have developed a remote-controlled robot to handle the physical work of loosening and tightening bolts that connect sections of pipe. This could make pipefitting safer and more productive, addressing the labor shortage and low productivity issues in the industry.

The robot can slide across a pipe, tightening and loosening four bolts at a time, and is small enough to be carried by a single worker. Its design was informed by conversations with members of the Pressure Vessels & Piping Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who highlighted the common diameter of pipes used in various industries.

Elliott believes the market for this kind of automation is vast, considering the wide range of industries that rely on piping infrastructure, from water treatment to sustainable manufacturing.