Dive brief:
- Researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering are developing a method that uses drones, robots and AI to examine the exterior of buildings for leaks.
- The research team received a one-year, $1 million Civic Innovation Challenge award of the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to support their work, according to an Oct. 12 press release.
- The project aims to facilitate compliance New York City Local Law 97to be implemented by 2024 with the aim of achieving net zero emissions status for large buildings by 2030.
Diving knowledge:
Poorly maintained building exteriors, which include exterior walls, roofs, doors, and windows, have been increasing New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions. Poorly insulated envelopes reduce the impact of general thermal insulation due to air leakage from wall penetrations that have significantly higher heat transfer rates than the surrounding materials, according to a report from the city’s mayor’s office of sustainability. As a result, additional energy is needed to heat and cool buildings to maintain a stable indoor air temperature, according to the report.
Building on expertise in robot perception, AI-powered technology under development at NYU detects building envelope leaks through robots and drone scans. By enabling non-invasive detection of moisture and thermal irregularities in building envelopes, engineers will not have to make as many physical visits. The collected data would be sent to cloud-based servers and analyzed by AI-powered software that can generate detailed reports on building conditions, the statement said.
Chen Feng, an assistant professor in the Departments of Civil and Urban Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NYU is the project’s principal investigator. Feng said the technology will allow building inspection professionals to perform more inspections than traditional methods, saving a lot of time, especially for places that are not easily accessible.
“Furthermore, our deep learning methods will enable the novel use of non-conventional sensors to identify various defects in the building envelope,” Feng said in the statement.
“Building envelopes have a significant impact on energy efficiency, occupant comfort and overall structural integrity,” Semiha Ergan, a CUE associate professor working with Feng on the project, said in the statement. “Poor sealing of air and moisture within these envelopes contributes to worse building emissions and can lead to adverse health outcomes for those living there.”
The project not only showcases a new technological approach to building inspections required for Local Law 97 compliance, but also demonstrates a unique academic and civic collaboration, an NYU Tandon School of Engineering spokesperson said in an email to Facilities Dive.
Last year, the research team received a first-stage award in collaboration with the New York City Department of Administrative Services, the New York Office of Technology and Innovation, and the District 2030 of the New York City, NYU said. The first-stage work involved using thermal-sensing drones and a preliminary version of a robotic data collection platform to conduct a pilot assessment of buildings at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, according to the communicated The university noted that the success of this first phase set the stage for this $1 million award that allows the team to continue their research.
By 2024, the team intends to develop and deploy an autonomous robotic data collection system equipped with sensors such as ground-penetrating radar, GPS and Lidar, as well as optical and thermal cameras, the institution said in the communicated He noted that drones will also be used to capture the thermal and color data of building exteriors.
The team plans to survey schools owned by the Archdiocese of New York to examine adoption barriers and opportunities for new technology from academic, social, and policy angles in collaboration with a research group led by Diana Hernandez, associate professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University. Mailman School of Public Health.
