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A high-tech building inspector, in the form of a robot, may soon roam new buildings in Singapore looking for architectural defects such as cracks and uneven surfaces.
Named QuicaBot, short for Quality Inspection and Assessment Robot, the machine can move autonomously to scan a room using laser scanners and high-tech cameras to pick up building defects.
It is invented by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and co-developed by JTC and local start-up CtrlWorks. The robot will be test-bedded in JTC Space @ Gul.
NTU’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering assistant professor Erdal Kayacan, who served as project leader, revealed that their main objective in developing the robot is to speed up the building inspection process according to standards set by the Building & Construction Authority.
“Visual inspection of a new building is an intensive effort that takes two inspectors, so we have designed a robot to assist a human inspector to do his job in about half the time, saving precious time and manpower, and with great accuracy and consistency,” explained Kayacan.
“The robot can scan an entire room to detect defects according to stringent and consistent standards, and then upload its data in 3D into a database. This means all defects will have their visual and detailed measurements recorded automatically, which can be accessed by the inspectors and the building owners.”
Koh Chwee, Director, Technical Services Division of JTC and Co-Director of the NTU-JTC Industrial Infrastructure Innovation Centre (I3C), noted that the use of such automation in construction projects will not only raise the quality of inspections, it will also help alleviate the manpower crunch faced by the construction industry.
Image caption: Robot co-developed by NTU, JTC and CtrlWorks, with funding from NRF (Source: NTU)
Nikki De Guzman, Editor at CommercialGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email nikki@propertyguru.com.sg
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