foster + partners and boston dynamics employ 'spot' the robot dog

architecture firm foster + partners has been using ‘spot’, boston dynamics’ agile robot dog, as a tool to capture and monitor construction progression on-site. the two companies have been working together to explore the potential of a robot in a dynamic environment such as a construction site, capturing changes on a regular basis, and being able to easily compare the ‘as-designed’ models against the ‘as-built’ reality.

all images © aaron hargreaves / foster + partners

‘construction sites are inherently dynamic environments, where changes need to be tracked and measured on a regular basis, capturing errors in time to meet the project timeframe and budget,’ explains foster + partners. ‘with several contractors working in tandem on site, there is a need for a process that can allow for constant, quick and consistent precision monitoring of the works, which can ensure that potential deviation from the design — which may affect later works — can be picked up on time.’

the architects say that if sequential scans — which help supervise procurement and logistics and ensure that timeframes can be kept under check — are done manually, the process can be time consuming and may potentially yield results that cannot easily be compared. developed by boston dynamics, ‘spot’ can be controlled remotely, is terrain-agnostic, and can repeatedly follow a pre-mapped route — while avoiding obstacles or even climbing stairs. this makes the robot an optimal tool to scan building sites with minimum resources and time.

the architects used their ‘battersea roof gardens’ mixed use project — part of the third phase of the battersea power station development — as a testbed, with a map devised to set up the missions spot needed to follow. returning to the site on a weekly basis allowed the robot to re-run the same missions with the process yielding a sequence of highly comparable, consistent models.

‘the ability of spot to repeatedly and effortlessly complete routine scans, in an ever-changing environment was invaluable not only in terms of the consistency but also the large amount of high-quality data collected,’ says martha tsigkari, partner, foster + partners. ‘through this process we developed a sequence of scans that may help us track the project progress against timeframes as well as facilitate regular comparisons against the BIM model. our scans can ensure that very quick and accurate changes to the newly designed system could be made to accommodate the differences captured by the scans – all in a matter of days. this could result in savings both in terms of time and money.’

read more about the robots developed by boston dynamics on designboom here.