Avangrid announced a pilot project that will deploy a ‘Spot’ robot dog from Boston Dynamics paired with AI models from Levatas for visual and thermal inspections at two substations of its Connecticut subsidiary, United Illuminating (UI).
The pilot project will take place at UI’s Singer and East Shore substations and test a variety of AI models, developed by Levatas, to read analog gauges, record thermal images, and detect damaged equipment. To do so, the robot dog — nicknamed Sparky by the Avangrid team — is outfitted with a camera that has a 30x optical zoom and an infrared camera for taking thermal readings to compare the transformer and breaker phases. There is also an option to attach an acoustic sensor that can detect, locate, and visualize changes in sound signatures, malfunctioning equipment, and other noise anomalies in real-time, Avangrid said.
At the Singer substation, the project will test how quickly and accurately the robot can detect and read several of the substation’s analog gauges. At the East Shore substation, the project will test the robot’s ability to inspect transformers, circuit breakers, and capacitor banks. Initially, the robot will be controlled by an onsite operator using a tablet, which can be used to both drive the robot and create autonomous missions. Avangrid said it is also working to install software that would allow for remote operation as well.
“It’s amazing to see this technology, which was inconceivable a few years ago, in our hands bringing value and benefits to our customers,” said Catherine Stempien, Avangrid Networks President and CEO. “While there will be many benefits, most important is that we expect Sparky will increase the frequency of our substation inspections so that we can see how our equipment is functioning during different seasons, times of the day, and energy loads. With this increased amount of data, we will have the potential to proactively identify unknown issues and trends before they cause outages that impact our customers. This is a great example of innovation and technology helping us do more.”
Avangrid isn’t the only one eyeing Boston Dynamic’s robot dogs. Last year, engineers at the U.K.’s National Grid finished a pilot that enlisted the help of the company’s robot dogs to lead the way with routine operation and maintenance activity at its interconnector sites.
In the pilot, Boston Dynamic’s Spot robot was used to search out issues with interconnector equipment. The dogs use LiDAR for 3D scanning and mapping as well as visual imaging, thermal imaging and acoustic imaging to find abnormalities. The machines access areas human engineers can’t while the asset is operational. Thus it is hoped to reduce outage times and improve asset availability and safety for engineers. The dogs look out for hot spots and incipient faults in need of extra attention, collecting data in the same way each time.
