FEATURE
Smart machines are able to make better decisions
with ever greater autonomy and efficiencies.
DILEMMAS IN DIGITISATION FM won’t escape the rise of the robots, but the experts at winter maintenance
specialists GRITIT are actively working towards a future where man and machine will work together in harmony.
It’s a few hours before dawn on a crisp clear morning. The car park lies in low valley and, even though a frost hadn’t been predicted by the local forecast, the cold air coming off the surrounded hills has become trapped, chilling the road surface to below zero and forming a slippery layer of ice. Yet despite the unexpected nature of the frost, the GRITIT RoboGrit is awake, loaded up with salt and at work – already alerted by sensors embedded in the road surface that had detected the dropping ground temperatures. The robot systematically sweeps back and forth across the parking bays spreading grit, only briefly diverting from the optimised route it follows with centimetre accuracy to avoid the occasional car that’s been left charging overnight.
This isn’t quite science fiction: with some refinement, this is all possible using today’s technology. In fact, RoboGrit isn’t a fictional character either. Not quite. This winter we’ll be starting our first trials of an experimental prototype on real client sites. Looking like a hi-tech miniature dune buggy, GRITIT RoboGrit (the inevitable nickname has stuck) isn’t actually clearing that much ice these days. It is however an important test-bed for technologies that include navigation, collision detection and spreading systems. Crucially, many
30 | TOMORROW’S FM
of these technologies are already tried and tested from other industries - drawing on established GPS navigation tools and robotic systems that are already in use in warehouses and factories. Meanwhile, the machine vision systems and batteries being developed for automated and electrified transportation are falling in cost and becoming increasingly available.
As with virtually every other new technology today, RoboGrit is also being designed as part of a wider network of connected, data-driven system. It belongs to the Internet of Things, where smart machines are able to make better decisions with ever greater autonomy and efficiencies. Consequently, work on a gritting robot actually follows our earlier investments into a bespoke system that integrates forecast data to plan gritting runs, and in parallel with ongoing work to develop smart sensors to transmit surface temperatures from sites. Again, both of those developments applied established technologies to the challenge of taking on bad winter weather.
While you're unlikely to see the automation of gritting any time soon, you can see that a surprising amount of progress has already been made. However, technology is
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