Lessons from the ROMA I inspection robot development experience

Inspection work, involves a high number of dangerous manual operations especially in large industrial environments such as shipbuilding and construction. For instance, there are a large number of operations to be performed on metallic structures especially in bridges, oil-rigs and building skeletons which represent a danger even for skilled workers. The last decade has seen an increasing interest in developing and employing special robots in construction in order to assist the human operator as well as to limit the damage caused to them.