Rapidly Deployable Robotic Inspection and Mapping of Complex Spaces

In collaboration with the City of Worcester, we propose to develop a lizard inspired soft mobile robot for assessment of indoor spaces and duct inspection in old public buildings for the purposes of climate change adaptation. Due to the invasive and expensive nature of the current manual inspection processes, the City cannot identify, intervene or improve the current building stock and infrastructure. Collaborating with the City’s Department of Sustainability and Resilience, Department of Public Facilities, and Department of Public Works and Parks, based on our lizard inspired soft robotic mobility technology developed in preliminary work and new technologies to extend the sensing and navigation capabilities and convenient user interfaces, this project will identify the requirements to implement a minimally invasive, inexpensive robotic solution that can provide valuable mapping and sensing data for inspection.