DUBAI: Dubai Municipality says a survey robot cut operating costs by 90% at the Wadi Al Amardi Housing Project, helping teams complete surveys of finished homes and issue final survey certificates faster.

The work also saved customers a combined 472 days (about 1 and a half years) of waiting, according to Gulf News’ Sept. 11 report. That total adds the time saved across customers, rather than measuring how much faster a single survey was completed. 

Using lidar laser scanners and cameras, the robot takes measurements and images with minimal human input, the municipality said.

The surveys create digital archives of buildings that include three-dimensional point clouds and panoramic images that show a building's profile and outer structure in more detail than a typical 2D map.

That information, the municipality said, can be repurposed for future planning and engineering tasks.

The financial, technical and training costs that went into the purchase of the robot are not mentioned in the account.