FTD Highrise Inspection’s Robot Is Able To Do Faster And More Accurate Building Inspection

image: beta.images.theglobeandmail.com

FTD Highrise Inspection of Mississauga, Canada created SAM, a highrise-inspecting robot. While it is designed to do building inspection, it is claimed to be a far more superior alternative to the traditional service.

To do inspection on the side of the building, SAM uses a roof-mounted custom rigging system. Operators of the robot would drop wires down the building’s side and then attach SAM to the wires so it can climb up and do inspection on the sides. Once an area is completely inspected, the rigging system is re-positioned to another area so SAM can perform another inspection. This process is done until areas that needs inspection are completely covered.

image: images.gizmag.com

SAM takes photos of the area covered in which the robot’s operators can examine using a tablet style control. The operators would try to find cracks or any kind of damage in the building’s sides. The images taken by SAM is saved and recorded on a digital 3D grid map of the building.

SAM was able to completely inspect a 21,000 square feet exterior surface area building in just two days. FTD explains that traditional method such as using people to do the inspection would take weeks to complete.

SAM records the images of every square inch of the building’s exterior surface making it more convenient and accurate for operators. The images or data taken by SAM can be used for future reference and accessed anytime online.  Aside from accuracy, SAM is able to reduce inspection costs due to its speed in completing tasks.  via [GizMag]