Uncrewed Systems Technology 049 - April/May 2023

74 Insight | UGVs body, and try to extinguish the flames directly at their source. At the moment, the FFB-FW8000 is designed and built in Dubai, although the company plans to open a second location in Saudi Arabia. Industrial inspection Returning to the ANYmal fromANYbotics mentioned above, this four-legged UGV is capable of walking through hallways and up and down stairs as any human inspector would, while carrying out the visual, audio and thermal inspections of machines, cables and tanks that form the more onerous and repetitive as well as less valuable parts of an inspector’s routine. Although a lot of ANYbot’s work to date has been for oil & gas companies such as Petronas, its latest customer, RTE, is a fellow European entity. RTE is responsible for the operation, maintenance and development of France’s electricity transmission systems, and is therefore responsible for assets that include 105,000 km of power lines – the largest single transmission system in Europe. The ANYmal was deployed at three replica installations at Campus Transfo, RTE’s technological and industrial laboratory, to gauge its mobility, navigation and data-collection capabilities. The ANYmal’s 3D SLAM enabled it to navigate through established facilities, so no structural changes were required for it to start carrying out simulated inspections. Thermal surveys of electrical shelves and visual sweeps of liquid levels, gauges and levers were performed, with the UGV’s auto diagnostics analysing data in real time for any irregularities that would warrant preventative maintenance. A range of indoor and outdoor deployments were performed during the trials. Each mission lasted about 20 minutes and included up to 35 points of inspection, as well as numerous en- route tests of autonomous functions including obstacle avoidance, operating in the dark, and conditions where water was being sprayed. Having judged the trials a success, RTE now intends to investigate how well the ANYmal carries out autonomous inspections in its electric substations in urban and offshore environments, as well as in its high-voltage DC power substations. Conclusion The growing competencies in optimising UGVs and their supporting technologies for unsafe and challenging applications are likely to open up new applications for autonomy across heavy-duty missions. Just as we have recently begun to see many uncrewed systems weighing many tonnes each, the decade ahead might lead to evolutions that result in competing autonomous fire trucks, mining haul trucks, battle tanks and bulldozers. In addition, the ongoing successes of the Doberbots, ANYmals and other four-legged UGVs could drive demand for even more dexterous solutions. Given that theoretically nothing ought to be a better substitute for people, it might however not be long before bipedal, humanoid robots become a sought-after solution in hands-on civilian and military tasks where humans might otherwise have been irreplaceable. April/May 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The ANYmal is now undergoing trials with French utility RTE for inspecting its high-voltage power transmission facilities (Courtesy of ANYbotics)