By Evan Ackerman26 Oct 2015 20:30 GMTYou Probably Shouldn't Expect City Repairing Drones Any Time Soon Photo: Jaya Ramchandani via Flickr A drone that can repair infrastructure sounds really cool, but it may not be realistic.

The University of Leeds has been awarded ?4.2 million to lead part of a national infrastructure research project in the U.K. with the vision of using small robots to create “self-repairing cities.” The general idea is to create swarms of small robots that will be able to zip around cities, keeping out of the way of people while proactively identifying weak infrastructure and making repairs before anything actually goes wrong.

This award is part of a larger national initiative to explore “how new ways of using robotics and autonomous systems can restore the balance between engineered and natural systems in the cities of the future.” This sounds awesome, and technological optimism is great, but it’s also important to temper expectations with reality, and avoid getting swept up in the hype of a press release. Like, that “of the future” phrase should immediately make you suspicious, because of a.) its rampant overuse in headlines by lazy tech bloggers b.) its inherently nonspecific nature. In other words, if something sounds implausibly good, well, it probably is, especially if there’s not a lot of detail to go along with it.

We do have some details about what the robotics part of this project is going to focus on, and it’s some pretty crazy stuff that we’re guessing is never actually going to happen.

According to the press release, “the researchers will initially develop new robot designs and technologies in three areas”:

? “Perch and Repair” – research to develop drones that can perch, like birds, on structures at height and perform repair tasks, such as repairing street lights.

Perching drones are realistic and do exist, using microspines or adhesive or bird-ish legs. It’s the “perform repair tasks” that really seems nuts. To stick with the street light example, let’s think about what it would take to replace the bulb, a relatively simple repair. The drone would have to have sensors and manipulators with enough intelligence, dexterity, and strength to remove the cover, pull out the old bulb, put in the new bulb, and get the cover back on. At best, this seems impractical.

Honestly, I don’t know why a drone is the right way to tackle something like this. Is it because these things are high up? When humans repair high up things, we don’t do it from helicopters, because that would be silly. We use cranes. It seems like it might be more plausible to develop a mobile robotic boom lift: you wouldn’t have to worry about perching or stability or payload, and you could stick a pair of nice robot arms at the top along with a bunch of sensors and whatever else you might need to do repairs. You wouldn’t be able to reach everything that a drone would be able to, but since most of our infrastructure was created with cranes, most if it can be fixed with cranes as well.

? “Perceive and Patch” – research to develop drones able to autonomously inspect, diagnose, repair and prevent potholes in roads.

As with the perch and repair thing, I have no idea why you’d conceivably want to use a drone for this. You’d either be asking it to navigate at low altitude through a highly complex and dangerous urban environment, or you’d have to invent some kind of sensor system that could locate and analyze a dark hole in a dark road from an improbably long distance. You’d also need the drone to be able to carry whatever repair hardware is necessary, which (if you’re repairing potholes) includes a bunch of rocks. Good luck with that. And how does a drone “prevent” potholes, anyway?

It’s far less crazy, even borderline practical, to do this with a robotic ground vehicle. Like, you know, a truck. If you want to make it fully autonomous, that’s great, but the important part is having some pothole sensors at the front and a pothole repair system at the back. Whenever the vehicle drives over a pothole, the sensors inspect and diagnose it, sending commands to the repair system, which fills the pothole as the vehicle passes slowly over. You’d need to drive every lane of every street for this method to be effective, but with an autonomous vehicle (or a small fleet of autonomous vehicles), that’s not a huge burden.

In the interim, it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to do it with a manned ground vehicle, since we have those already, and they work. For example, the Georgia Tech Research Institute has been developing an “Automated Pavement Crack Detection and Sealing System.” It’s a robotic trailer that gets towed by a (manned) truck, and it’s able to detect and repair cracks in asphalt continuously at 3 mph. Scale this up to be able to deal with potholes, enable autonomous driving, and you have something very useful, and slightly realistic.

? “Fire and forget” – research to develop robots which will operate indefinitely within live utility pipes performing inspection, repair, metering and reporting tasks.

This seems realistic and achievable. Hooray! Of the five things that we’re promised here, “inspection” and “metering” and “reporting” are already done by deployable systems. That leaves indefinite operation and repair to really tackle. Harvesting energy from operating utility pipes seems like a solvable problem, either through microbial fuel cells or (more likely) turbine generators powered by moving fluid.

I’m less sure about how the repair part would work. Cleaning seems more realistic, or perhaps breaking clogs, stuff like that. Fixing a crack would be a lot more difficult, although it’s not out of the realm of near-term possibility if the robot was carrying some kind of glue or epoxy that it could apply in one shot.

Even if the things that this press release suggests might happen don’t actually happen, our hope is that a lot of good incremental research is going to happen here. What we don’t really understand is why such an improbable proposal is being made in the first place: is it not cool enough to suggest a robotic vehicle that can autonomously detect and fix potholes? Are drones really so buzzworthy that everything needs to be turned into a drone project regardless of practicality? I really, really hope not, because I’d much rather see research that embraces achievable results that will make my life better, as opposed to research that can’t possibly live up to the expectations that it generates.

[ University of Leeds ]

你可能不应该指望无人机能在短时间内自主修复城市

由Evan ackerman26月2015日20:30 gmtyou可能不要指望城市修复无人机的任何时间soon照片：公司用品通过Flickr的无人机可以修复基础设施，听起来真的很酷，但它可能是不现实的。

利兹大学获420万英镑；在使用小机器人创造“视觉英国国家基础设施研究项目的一部分铅；自修复城市。&rdquo；总的想法是要创造的小机器人能够穿梭城市群，保持了对这样的人而主动识别基础设施薄弱和修理任何事之前其实是错的。

这个奖是一个更大的国家积极探索&ldquo；如何利用机器人和自主系统，新的方法可以恢复工程和自然系统之间在未来城市的平衡。&rdquo；这听起来真棒，技术乐观主义是伟大的，但它'也很重要的是要与现实的期望，避免在一个新闻稿的炒作。喜欢，&ldquo；未来的&rdquo；短语应该立即让你产生怀疑，因为A）其猖獗的过度使用的科技博客头条懒B）其固有的非特异性。换句话说，如果事情听起来令人难以置信的好，嗯，大概是，特别是如果有；没有很多的细节，随它去吧。

我们确实有一些关于机器人的一部分，这个项目是去关注，它'；的一些很疯狂的东西我们&rsquo；再猜测实际上并没有发生。

根据新闻稿，&ldquo；研究人员将首先在三区”开发新的机器人的设计和技术；：< / P >

&bull；及nbsp；&ldquo；鲈鱼和修复&rdquo；& ndash；研究开发的无人机可以栖息，像鸟，在结构的高度和执行修复任务，如维修路灯。

栖息的无人机是现实的，是存在的，microspines或使用胶粘剂或鸟ISH的腿。它&rsquo；的&ldquo；执行修复任务&rdquo；，似乎真的疯了。坚持与路灯的例子，让&rsquo；想想怎样才能更换灯泡，一个相对简单的修复。无人机必须有足够的智慧，灵巧和力量的传感器和机械手，以除去盖，拔出旧灯泡，把在新灯泡，并得到的封面上。在最好的情况下，这似乎是不切实际的。 ；< / P >
老实说，我不知道为什么，一架无人机；是解决这样的事情的正确方法。是因为这些东西都高了吗？当人类修高了的东西，我们就不要；不从直升机，因为那将是愚蠢的。我们用起重机。它看起来像它可能更开发移动机器人臂抬起似是而非的：你不会&rsquo；不必担心栖息或稳定或有效载荷，你可以把一双漂亮的机器人手臂在顶部，随着一批传感器和其他任何你可能需要修理。你不是；不能达到无人机能一切，但由于我们的基础设施，创造了以起重机，大多数如果它可以固定起重机 ；以及。

&bull； ；&ldquo；感知和补丁和rdquo；& ndash；开发无人机能够自动地检查、诊断，研究修复和防止坑洼的道路。

与鲈鱼和修理的东西，我不知道你为什么&rsquo；D可能要使用无人机对。你也可以要求它；D在低空通过一个高度复杂和危险的城市环境，或者你&rsquo；D需要发明一种传感器系统，可以从一个不太可能的长距离定位和分析在一个黑暗的道路一个黑洞。你'；D也需要无人机能够进行任何修理的硬件是必要的，它（如果你&rsquo；重新修复坑洼）包括一系列的岩石。祝你好运。如何做无人机“；防止&rdquo；的坑洞，无论如何？< / P >

它&rsquo；的更疯狂，甚至比实际，做到这一点的一个机器人地面车辆。喜欢，你知道，一辆卡车。如果你想让它完全自治，这'；很棒，但是重要的部分是在前面有坑洼的传感器和在后面的坑槽修补系统。每当车辆驶过坑洞，传感器检测和诊断时，发送命令修复系统，填补坑洼的车辆通过缓慢。你'；D需要这种方法是很有效的每一条街道每一车道，但自主车辆（或一个小车队的自主车辆），那是；不是一个巨大的负担。

在中期，它不是；T是可怕的想法与载人地面车辆做它，因为我们已经和他们的工作。例如，佐治亚技术研究所已经开发了&ldquo；自动路面裂缝检测和密封系统。&rdquo；它&rsquo；的机器人拖车被拖行了（载人）的卡车，它&rsquo；可以检测并修复持续以每小时3英里的速度在沥青路面裂缝。这个规模能够应对坑洼，使自主驾驶，你有一些非常有用的和略的现实。

&bull； ；&ldquo；消防和忘记&rdquo；& ndash；开发的机器人将在现场公用管道进行检测、维修无限期的操作研究，计量和报告任务。

这似乎是现实的和可实现的。万岁这五件事我们&rsquo；重新承诺，&ldquo；检查&rdquo；和&ldquo；计量&rdquo；和&ldquo；报告&rdquo；已经完成部署系统。那将不确定的操作和修理，真正的解决。从经营公用管道收集能量似乎是一个可解的问题，无论是通过微生物燃料电池或（更可能）涡轮发电机的运动流体动力。 ；< / P >

我；我不知道如何修复的部分工作。清洗似乎更为现实，或者破木屐，诸如此类。固定裂缝会困难得多，虽然它&rsquo；不出近期可能如果机器人携带着某种胶或环氧，它可以将一个镜头。

即使本新闻稿表明可能发生的事情不；T真的发生了，我们的希望是，很多好的增量研究会在这里发生。我们不明白的是为什么；T真的这样一种不太可能的方案是放在第一位：是不是不够冷静，建议一个机器人车辆，可以自动检测和修复坑洼？无人驾驶飞机是真的那么值得期待，一切都要变成一个无人机项目不管实用性？我真的，真的希望不会，因为我&rsquo；宁愿看到研究包含实现 ；结果，会使我的生活更好，而不是研究可以&rsquo；不可能辜负期望产生。

[利兹大学]