The DamBot Mini, an unmanned robotic inspection platform developed by team members at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), was recently deployed at Alamo Dam in northwest Arizona for field testing in a relevant operational environment. This test was coordinated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Los Angeles District to coincide with inspection work many years in the planning. The platform successfully collected imagery and a lidar point cloud of the lower conduit and delivered these data products to the district.
“DamBot Mini is just a smaller version of the DamBot, allowing access to spaces where the larger DamBot cannot fit,” said Jordan Klein, a research computer engineer in the Sensor Integration Branch. “It has the same mission set, collecting photos and lidar scans, just in a smaller package. This also makes the platform more portable and significantly reduces the cost.”
The DamBot, winner of the 2021 USACE Innovation of the Year award, utilizes a variety of sensors such as high-resolution cameras and lidar to allow remote inspection, taking the human element out of dangerous but necessary USACE maintenance tasks. Just as with its predecessor, the mini system will give districts and divisions a first-pass visual inspection of some of their more dangerous locations, which are inaccessible to inspectors due to hazardous conditions, like at the Alamo Dam, where the presence of hydrogen sulfide gas in the outlet prohibits human entry for much of the year.
“Alamo Dam has some structural design quirks that made it very interesting for us to perform a field test to make sure our technology could operate in challenging conditions such as very small spaces and curvature in the outlet itself,” said Klein. “There are also risks from the hydrogen sulfide gas, which added an extra element. Still, we were able to successfully enter the conduit and navigate the tight spaces and curvature with no problems, capturing visual and lidar data along the way.”
Based on lessons learned, the team will now make a couple of modifications and hopes to soon get back into a USACE project to test the platform against other technologies, including handheld systems and possibly aerial platforms. ITL’s expertise in sensor systems and edge computing are the big enablers for this effort – Klein suggested thinking of robotic platforms as mobile edge computing/sensor systems – and areas of operation are expanding.
“We recently partnered with ERDCWERX to do some field testing of different unmanned inspection technologies for confined spaces, specifically targeting ships under construction,” said Klein. “As part of the Vessel Inspection Tool project, we evaluated technologies to improve the safety of USACE vessel inspections in confined spaces at the Memphis District shipyard. Knowledge gained can directly apply to our efforts in outlet works as well, so we are excited to see where this technology takes us.”
The goal is to reduce risks to personnel by minimizing their exposure to hazards during inspections targeting confined spaces as defined by SoN 1761 “Remotely Operated Confined Space Vehicles/Tools” funded under Navigation Systems program. These requirements were determined through collaboration with senior technicians at the Marine Design Center (MDC) and observation of operations at MDC, the Memphis District and the U.S. Navy Naval Seas Systems Command. The resulting evaluation will provide a comprehensive guide for integrating and using remote inspection technologies to enhance USACE’s marine vessel inspection processes.