Industrial Inspections Go to the Dogs

Boston Dynamics, ANYbotics, Unitree, Ghost Robotics and other companies have gone viral for their four-legged dog-like robots that can dance, open doors, and more. But these robots are also working on inspections, leak detection, monitoring and security alongside humans in hazardous environments like offshore energy platforms , nuclear power plants and other O&G applications—making a bark bigger than their bite. 

Dominion Energy Hits the Spot

This year, Dominion Energy ran a pilot to test Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dog after finding limitations with crawler robots and aerial drones. 

From The Verge

In February of 2022, after much planning, Dominion kicked off a pilot at the Surry Nuclear Power Station, having Spot perform radiation surveys—initially piloted and then autonomous. Robotic inspections keep humans out of potentially dangerous areas, and because the data is collected digitally from the exact same place (or spot…) each time, readings are consistent over time. 

The company demonstrated Spot’s value in multiple areas of operations and project leaders expect to scale the number of Spots and its applications in the next few years. 

W.R. Grace Deploys a Whole Different ANYmal

The W.R. Grace Düren Chemical plant in Germany runs 24/7, so early detection of potential issues, along with schedule maintenance, are vital to maintaining uptime. Recently, the facility deployed the ANYmal quadruped robot to map new facilities, create detailed 3D models, and perform inspections autonomously—all of which feed into digital twins.

Throughout the facility, ANYmal autonomously executes more than 120 thermal, visual, and acoustic inspection points per mission, informing early detection of anomalies and preventive maintenance. Since implementing the pilot program, facility uptime increased 1.5% thanks to informed preventive maintenance.

Grace plans to continue scaling the use of ANYmal robots at Düren and other facilities with the goals of further improving uptime, increasing production volume, and reducing costs.

We have no dog in this fight, but many companies do!