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Large buildings and tall structures often require regular inspection and maintenance in order to ensure the integrity of their construction. Failure to carry out proper maintenance can cause loss of life or damage to a property, which may result in criminal charges. The traditional manual method requires the installation of costly scaffolding and/or gondolas. Human workers must stand on this scaffolding or ride in the gondolas at high altitude to carry out inspections and repairs. Inevitably, this is a slow and costly process.
Service robots with the ability to climb large structures and buildings can provide a good alternative solution to this problem. These robots can carry various tools or inspection equipment to perform inspection and maintenance tasks remotely without the need for scaffolding. In this course, various sensory, artificial intelligence, control and human-machine interface technologies required for building such robots will be discussed. Some real applications of a service robot will also be presented, along with some commonly used Non-Destructive Test (NDT) Techniques for pressure vessels inspection, such as Ultrasonic, Magnetic Particle Inspection and Eddy Current. For inspecting building external walls, Thermography, Shearography and Impact-Acoustic techniques will be discussed.
*** A Service Robotic Lab visit (optional activity) will be arranged after lecture. Due to the limited space, the Laboratory can only accommodate 20 visitors. Places will only be allocated to participants with early registration and on FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED basis. These participants will earn 3.2 CPD hours.*** |
