Street works carried out in England between 2022 and 2023 cost the economy around £4 billion in journey disruptions. Infrastructure work is essential, but minimizing its impact on drivers and residents remains a major challenge. One potential solution to this issue is the use of autonomous mobile robots in maintenance. In this context, robotics could play a significant role in improving efficiency and reducing disruptions caused by essential repairs.
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The Need for Faster and More Efficient Maintenance Solutions
Maintenance work carried out by gas, water, and telecoms companies is crucial for essential services. However, these street works can cause anything from minor inconvenience to severe disruption, with speed restrictions, closed pavements, and temporary traffic lights. To address this, the Government proposed plans in 2024 to increase fines for utility companies, encouraging faster work that may run into weekends and bank holidays. While this could reduce delays, it might also encourage rushed, substandard maintenance. This could result in the work needing to be redone, only causing future disruptions.
Maintenance Robots and Autonomous Technology for Self-Repairing Cities
A more efficient solution would involve integrating autonomous technology into the repair process. The University of Leeds is exploring this concept with its £4.2 million ‘self-repairing’ cities project, which aims to minimize street disruptions by using maintenance robots.
Maintenance robots offer several advantages in this context. For example, repairing broken streetlamps currently requires specialist vehicles with crane-like mechanisms, which are limited in number, obstruct roads, and pose health and safety risks to workers. The self-repairing city concept suggests deploying drones stationed around cities that can be quickly dispatched to fix problems, reducing both disruption and risks.
Using Autonomous Mobile Robots for Large-Scale Inspections
Autonomous mobile robots are also useful for inspections. Manual road condition surveys are time-consuming and unsafe. Eventually, cars may be able to record and transmit road condition data, but until then, drones provide a more efficient solution. Operating 24/7, drones can detect small cracks and potholes before the problem escalates.
Robotics can also help inspect hard-to-reach areas. Underground water pipes in the UK lose thousands of litres each year due to cracks and leaks. In this case, robots can crawl through pipes too small for humans to access, conducting thorough, safe, and remote inspections. By leveraging maintenance automation, the speed and accuracy of these inspections are significantly improved, enabling faster and cheaper repairs.
Building the Right Robot for Efficient Maintenance
For maintenance robots to function efficiently, the right drive systems are crucial. Whether it’s a small DC motor powering drone propellers or positioning a robotic arm, performance depends on the drive system’s capabilities. Design engineers must consider several factors when selecting suitable drive systems for autonomous mobile robots.
Drones must be lightweight for better power efficiency and to avoid requiring specialist flight licenses in built-up areas. While developing powerful, lightweight drones is increasingly possible, the tools needed for autonomous repairs add weight, creating further weight restrictions.
Size is another key consideration, especially for robots working in compact spaces like pipes. The drive system must be compact to reduce the overall size of the robot while still providing enough torque to perform tasks like tightening screws or applying filler paste.
Precision Gearheads for Compact Robots
Precision gearheads help maintain high torque in small spaces. These small gearboxes sit between the motor and power transfer point, slowing high motor speeds while significantly increasing available torque. They also help to improve movement control, ideal for high-precision work.
Planetary gearheads are perfect for compact applications like small maintenance robots. These use toothed planetary gears that rotate around a centrally mounted sun gear, with the number of teeth determining the reduction ratio. The toothed design provides more contact points, making the gears robust with a long service life.
This access to higher torques comes with minimal drive length extension. FAULHABER offers a range of planetary gearheads, distributed exclusively in the UK and Ireland by EMS. The smallest micro range gearhead has a diameter of just 3.4 millimetres, while the smallest standard gearhead is only six millimetres.
Future of Infrastructure: Autonomous Mobile Robots for Better Maintenance
While infrastructure repair work is necessary, its social and economic impact can be significant. Updating maintenance strategies with autonomous mobile robots can reduce the negative effects of repair work while building better, more reliable infrastructure for the future. Embracing maintenance automation and leveraging robotic technology to improve speed and precision could transform the way essential infrastructure work is conducted, benefiting both utility companies and the communities they serve.
