European premier: High-tech robotic dog makes power station work safer

Reinforcement for Austria’s largest power station: Wien Energie has launched a new support system for inspections at its Simmering power station. A robot equipped with artificial intelligence, fondly referred to by personnel as EnergyDog, has started making inspections on the power station site. EnergyDog is the first robotic dog of this kind in use in Europe during the routine operations of a power station and will in future autonomously report technical faults. Equipped with numerous special cameras and sensors, this robot will be contributing to the security of supply for more than 800,000 households in Vienna. “Our EnergyDog provides high-tech support at the power station and highlights the innovative strength of Wien Energie. This special device will be the first in Europe to be deployed in routine operations in a power station. The EnergyDog learns from its human colleagues, stores important knowledge and makes everyday operations for our personnel easier and safer. This allows them to focus all their expertise on complex tasks,” explains Wien Energy General Manager, Karl Gruber.

The pace of digitalisation and efforts to manage the energy transition are having a major impact on professional roles in the energy sector. With the aid of new technologies, employees will in future be relieved of routine tasks so that the available resources can be used to tackle more complex tasks and solutions. Automation has also found its way into the power station sector. The job of site inspectors, for example, will in the long term be taken over by this robotic dog with its sensitive digital ‘nose’. This will take some of the burden off power station personnel, who are in high demand due to generation change and a potential lack of specialists. The EnergyDog will not however be replacing any staff. On the contrary, it will be providing them with high-tech support.

The smart robotic dog is the output of a research project financed by the Wiener Stadtwerke’s Innovation Fund. It was implemented jointly by Boston Dynamics with the company Smart Inspection acting as an implementation partner. The robot is currently still in training and is being fed with knowledge about operational systems by Wien Energie experts. Using the data collected by the robot, mathematical models will be developed and its artificial intelligence will learn how the systems operate under normal conditions. This smart dog doesn’t bark without good cause. It spots any deviations at an early stage and immediately reports these to the control centre. From spring 2023, EnergyDog will be in use around the clock performing the inspection tours of the various systems regularly needed at the site.

The EnergyDog robot is equipped with numerous sensors, including a thermal-imaging camera as well as acoustic and olfactory sensors. These special sensors not only make it easier for power station personnel to manage day-to-day work but also improve occupational safety and quality assurance levels at the power station. In around 90 minutes, this digital support system checks the site equipment, identifies at an early stage any potential sources of risk, such as gas leaks, and therefore considerably boosts employee safety  It will no longer be necessary for them to enter hazardous areas during incidents. Instead, with the aid of EnergyDog, they can safely and precisely localise technical faults and subsequently resolve them. Wien Energie is Europe’s first power station operator to routinely deploy a robotic dog in the operational area of a power station.

EnergyDog is not the first digital innovation at this power station. Augmented reality is already in use here. Data glasses provide engineers at Wien Energie’s power stations with immediate access to relevant real-time data related to a particular system so that they can evaluate the current situation. This means that any data needed, as well as detailed instructions on operational parameters or in order to identify faults, can be accessed, all of which dramatically speeds up the relevant processes.

Images and footage: https://bit.ly/3wD33op

You can follow EnergyDog during his training on Instagram @energy.dog