With a sprawling network of tunnels in need of repairs and upgrades, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has explored in recent years how it might automate some of its dirtiest and most time-consuming underground work. Now, after a successful trial of a railcar-mounted robot to drill holes for tunnel cable racks, the MTA is putting together an open bidding process for vendors to further develop a robot drill rig for use in New York City’s subway tunnels.
“The advantage is in maximizing the rate of productivity,” explains Alaadien Waziry, robotics project lead at the MTA’s Construction & Development division, which manages its capital projects. “[It’s] much more productive than the manual drilling performed by the contractors in the tunnels.” Waziry presented the MTA’s findings on the drilling robot’s performance at the 2021 ENR FutureTech conference, held online June 9 to 11.