RACA Journal April 2021 | Page 9

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International News

ROBOTS TO CHANGE THE WAY

BUILDINGS ARE DESIGNED , CONSTRUCTED AND USED

dog called Spot ’ can scan and analyse buildings to find

A mistakes or determine how the space is being used .

One of architecture ’ s newest and unlikeliest tools can now be found clomping through the dusty concrete floors of a half-built building . Just four legs and a torso , it could transform the entire design and construction world .
The tool is the dog-like robot called Spot , which was created by Boston Dynamics and is now being used by the London-based global architecture firm Foster + Partners to scan and analyse buildings that are under construction .
More commonly deployed in various industrial capacities , from monitoring dangerous oil and gas sites to inspecting areas with unsafe levels of radiation , Spot has become a part-time architect .
To test out the robot ’ s usefulness in the context of architecture , Foster + Partners ’ Applied Research and Development group set it loose inside Battersea Power Station , a major redevelopment project under construction on the banks of the Thames in London .
Spot is programmed to follow a pre-mapped route through the construction site , scanning the progress of the building and comparing it to the original design . This helps identify any mistakes and alterations that pop up as the digital design gets transformed into concrete and steel and ensures details such as HVAC , plumbing and electrical conduits are correctly aligned .
By monitoring the construction process every week , the professional team can quickly see if and how the physical building is deviating from the plans , and then adjust them to account for variations .
“ Currently the workflows used can be quite linear , and any design or on-site changes can have a knock-on effect in the process ,” says Martha Tsigkari , a partner at Foster + Partners . “ Disruptive technologies like Spot allow for any changes to be picked up almost instantly , saving both time and money .”
The firm has also used the robot on a renovation of its own headquarters in London , taking the data collected during its regular scans not only to monitor construction but also to influence the building ’ s functionality , according to partner Adam Davis . “ Our colleagues designing the environmental systems ( heating , cooling , and lighting ) benefitted greatly from having quick , detailed feedback on the as-built conditions before , during , and after the renovation works ,” he says .
A new robot dog named Spot can potentially change the design and building sectors of the near future .
The robot can be used to monitor completed and occupied buildings , performing regular scans to understand how spaces are being used . But though , there could come a time when a robot dog roving through a building is as innocuous as an escalator , for now it ’ s still a curiosity .
“ For Spot , or any robot , to be useful after occupancy , our entire perception of how we interact with them must change ,” says Tsigkari , noting that humans sometimes try to obstruct or even hinder robots when they ’ re encountered . “ We have witnessed nothing but excitement and admiration for Spot during our case studies , but it would be interesting to see what sort of behaviours emerge when robots like Spot become less of a novelty and more of a daily occurrence in our lives .”
It ’ s more likely that Spot will be used to scan buildings after people have gone home . “ At the moment , Spot turns heads wherever it goes . For use in occupied buildings , that presents a challenge because ideally you want to capture reality without altering it ,” says Davis . Instead , he envisions Spot making the rounds after the office is closed and combining its scans with data from sensors to reconfigure internal building layouts and adjust lighting and temperature control .
Down the line , Spot could even come to affect how buildings get designed . Tsigkari says just knowing a regular scan could catch issues later on may allow designers more flexibility in proposing design ideas that are far more experimental . “ Disruptive technologies have an interesting way of affecting processes we do not anticipate ” she says .
Aaron Hargreaves | Foster + Partners | Boston Dynamics

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