Newslink March 2024

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What have you spotted on the motorway?
Colin Lilly
Editor
MSA GB Newslink
Forget the Beast of Bodmin; drivers could
soon have another creature to distract them
on West Country roads.
The National Highways is currently trialling
a robot dog to carry out surveys on its road
network. The dog – nicknamed Spot – was
developed by Boston Dynamics for use in
geophysical surveys. The four-legged robot
is equipped with cameras and a Leica lidar
tracker. Alongside National Highways, BAM
Ritchies and AECOM are also participating.
Initial trials were caried out at the National
Highways Development Centre at Moretonin-the-Marsh,
Gloucestershire, with the first
live trials alongside the M5 in Somerset.
The robot will be used to gather
information from locations that are difficult to
reach. These include steep banks, culverts,
and under bridges. It is able to give a safe
cost-effective option where it would be risky
for human assessors or require costly safety
equipment or disruptive traffic management.
The regulations call for regular physical
inspections. It is hoped that using Spot will
reduce the need for employees conducting
close physical inspections.
The site for the live trial was St. Georges,
just north of Junction 21 (Weston-super-
Mare). At this point, the M5 is elevated to be
above the main railway line to the south west.
The resulting embankments are steep and
lightly wooded. Recently a team working on
renewing part of the railway bridge noticed
some defects in the ground surface. The
robot was used to take a thorough look at the
area.
There is one aspect the trial did not reveal,
which is the possible distraction to drivers.
The robot was trialled on an embankment
below the motorway surface level and
therefore out of drivers’ eyelines. It does
make you wonder what affect Spot could
have on some drivers. Perhaps after trials at
or above road level the safety aspects may
need to be reviewed.
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