Autonomous metrology

Everton Football Club's new stadium is the catalyst for this week's story. That will surprise most people how know me, as I'm really not a football-guy. But nonetheless, something very interesting was shared with me that comes from the construction site of Everton's new stadium.

This LinkedIn post shows a Spot, the robot dog from Boston Dynamics, walking around the site where the new stadium is being built. It's mounted with a BLK Arc autonomous laser scanning module from Leica Geosystems. So far, so good. 

It got me wondering about the future of metrology. Spot has been around for a while now, and I keep seeing these robots pop up in different applications. There's no doubt that it's an incredible feat of robotic manoeuvrability, and a highly flexible piece of equipment that can be adopted in a huge variety of applications. It's certainly a big step up from 'Elektro' the smoking robot's dog, Sparko.

One of the main applications for Spot that has proven very successful is to mount a 3D scanner on him, such as the BLK Arc. The versatile mobility of a quadruped, combined with the responsiveness of an AI-controlled robot means that it can be a much more efficient alternative than, for instance, static scanners set up on a tripod. The tripod needs to be moved manually, which takes time and also requires a fair bit of space. Another advantage that Spot has is its small size, meaning it could theoretically map spaces from the large to the very small. This is exactly what it was doing at Everton's construction site. 

Now I don't think there's anyone who works in a scientifically related field who does not like some science-fiction at the least. I'm no different, having grown up on lots of iconic movies in the genre. Ridley Scott is still one of my favourite directors, and when I first saw his 2012 film Prometheus, I absolutely revelled in horror. In it, there's a scene where the outer-space explorers enter some ancient ruins. In the interest of saving time and effort, one of the engineers launches up a few drones. Portrayed as hovering orbs, they quickly fly around with visible, red lasers, and instantly feed back to a live-updated map. 

The robot dog scanning a construction sight with laser scanning got me wondering about Prometheus. I wonder how long it will take before we can have tennis ball sized drones that will autonomously scan entire cave systems in a matter of seconds. I wonder how long it will be before we're surrounded by robots in our everyday lives, with every mundane task outsourced to the electronic population. Obviously this question has been asked countless times before, but what I realise is that with our eyes on the manufacturing industry, we do get to see glimpses of the future before everyday consumers get to see them. Some of the technology we talk about is the stuff of science-fiction from just a few years ago. Yes, normal consumers can get a robot dog if they have the money, but it'll mainly be a gimmick to them. In places like construction sites, these highly advanced technologies are actually being used. Effectively. 

And it turns out that I'm not the first to be inspired by Prometheus' laser-scanning drones. Because we're living in an age where this sort of technology is within our grasp, the scene inspired Network Rail to start a similar program. Granted, it's train tunnels that they're scanning, not alien ruins, and they're doing it with rotor-powered drones that are much larger than the tennis-ball ones from the film, but the film is set in 2089. There are constant advances in drone technology, and the military already uses miniscule flying drones that can observe the interior of buildings before troops enter, so it's really just a matter of time before someone invents a rotor-less hovering orb type drone. Judging from how small the BLK Arc looks on Spot's head, I also wouldn't be surprised if laser scanners will be getting significantly smaller soon. 

The implications of having fully autonomous scanning are enormous. Automation is one of the biggest parts of Industry 4.0, and robots play a large role in that process. Who knows, construction, manufacturing, quality assurance, inspection... They could all be processes that will be outsourced entirely to robots within our lifetimes.