A recent proof of concept collaboration highlights the rapid rise of “cobotics” development for construction sites of the (not so distant) future.
You have probably seen many photos and news items featuring robot platforms like the Boston Dynamics’ Spot® carrying various surveying and mapping instruments. On the surface, it might just look like it serves as a platform for carrying an instrument (or anything for that matter), and folks tend to dismiss these things as photo ops without practical application. But there is a lot more going on than meets the eye; advanced navigation and situational awareness sensing capabilities already exist on such platforms, and collaborations with AEC solution providers like Trimble are adding in advanced positioning, so that these can become near-autonomous data capture robots. These bots are smarter than they look, and so are the instrument packages they carry.
Note that I said, “near autonomous”. It could be a very long time before we have Commander Data on our construction crews—true autonomy is a long ways off. But we are already seeing “cobots” in production and in use, and many more on the way. A cobot can do much of the work, but only symbiotically with their human counterpart. This is what many machine control systems for heavy construction equipment have become; the human is the guide, coach, and safety backup. We even see this in advances in surveying instruments (they don’t call them ‘robotic total stations’ for nothing). Like some new scanners that self-fine-level, self-calibrate, and self-register multiple scans. This has brought the power of precision laser canning to nearly anyone who can find the power button.
Trimble and Piaggio Fast Forward (PFF) have collaborated on a proof of concept that adds a PFF follow-along system on a Boston Dynamics Spot (that robot dog) along with Trimble advanced positioning and surveying instruments. This enables the human to control the robot via pairing and improves the robot’s ability to sense direction and velocity as it follows the leader. A fused sensor array pairs to a leader who navigates Spot or another robot or machine in dynamic environments such as construction and civil engineering spaces—there is no special training to operate or joystick, no app or tablet. This can create a wider range of applications for existing machines and positively impact productivity, safety, and quality of work.
I’ll paint a scenario: For a status update survey of a busy construction site, you just “bond” with the cobot and walk the site once, indicating the spacing of the scans. You then cut your cobot loose to go and gather the scans. It can sense its surroundings and avoid moving construction equipment. And your cobot will do this without stopping to check its cell phone, or smoke, or jabber with other co-workers. Meanwhile, you can go back to the job shack and do the mountain of paperwork you never seem to be able to get to. But I digress…
Any surveyor, mine, or construction worker that has had to work in a dynamic and dangerous location has had moments where they really wish they were not stuck there fearing for their safety. Cobots will help with safety and liability issues. And as a surveyor I remember trudging through soggy tundra, lugging heavy equipment and enduring grumpy crews, daydreaming about “flying total stations”. So happy now, these many years later, to see how ubiquitous drones have become in surveying workflows. Cobots are going to have the same kind of impact on AEC as drones.
Further automation of surveying and construction is inevitable; the gains in productivity could be tremendous. Yes, there are crucial considerations about quality, precision, accuracy, and reliability. But the reality is that, if handled right, the robots and cobots can do many tasks with higher quality, precision, accuracy, and reliability than we can—but only with our responsible supervision.
This follow-along thing is a good step forward (no pun intended). See a nice video of it here. Now I want voice commands, and a cup holder so it will fetch me some coffee…
