Foster + Partners have teamed up with Boston Dynamics as part of their early adopters’ programme for Spot, the semi-autonomous robot, to investigate how cutting-edge technologies can push the boundaries of both design and construction. Using 3D laser scanners mounted on Spot we are capturing and monitoring construction progress on building sites, as well as changes to furniture layouts in completed buildings. These repeated laser scans allow us to compare our digital design models to the reality as-built, and to build 4-dimensional models of space, to understand detailed changes over time.

The Smart Campus uses smart building technology to gain insight about patterns of visitation, environment, and energy usage. Sensors are installed to monitor temperature, humidity, CO2 and washroom occupancy. An external sensor monitors climate and air quality. The dashboard provides a view of the various data. It can be used to see patterns over the course of a day, as well as during a specific 15-minute interval.

The Applied R+D have been conducting research into Post-Occupancy Digital Twins, which are focusing on how a physical space is being used. Here, spatial snapshots are used in combination with other data sources, such as occupancy levels and environmental information which combine to form a digital model of the existing which can engage with other digital tools and services.

Construction sites are inherently dynamic environments, where changes need to be tracked and measured on a regular basis, capturing errors in time to meet the project timeframe and budget. The Applied R+D group have been hand-on with reality capture technologies, such as laser scanning, SLAM-based lidar scanning and photogrammetry.