A variety of methods for detecting the location of an underground water pipeline are being used across the world; the current main methods used in South Korea, however, have the problems of low precision and efficiency and the limitations in actual application. On this, this study developed locator capable of detecting the location of a water pipe by the use of an IMU sensor, and technology for using the extended karman filter to correct error in location detection and to plot the location on the coordinate system. This study carried out a tract test and a road test as basic experiments to measure the performance of the developed technology and equipment. As a result of the straight line, circular and ellipse track tests, the 1750 IMU sensor showed the average error of 0.08-0.11%; and thus it was found that the developed locator can detect a location precisely. As a result of the 859.6-m road test, it was found that the error was 0.31 m in case the moving rate of the sensor was 0.3-0.6 m/s; and thus it was judged that the equipment developed by this study can be applied to long-distance water pipes of over 1 km sufficiently. It is planned to evaluate its field applicability in the future through an actual pipe network pilot test, and it is expected that locator capable of detecting the location of a water pipe more precisely will be developed through research for the enhancement of accuracy in the algorithm of location detection.