JLR’s EV build and test facility in Coventry – which plays a crucial role in the luxury vehicle manufacturer’s plan to electrify all of its brands by 2030 – has added an unlikely colleague to its list of new recruits, in the form of a four-legged robotic dog dubbed ‘Rover’.
With the test facility a complex and energy-dense environment, with thousands of assets that requires constant monitoring, Rover’s role as guard dog is of critical importance to JLR and its human colleagues – saving them valuable time by spotting potential operational issues and equipment wear and tear early, ensuring test and development continues to run on schedule ahead of the launch of Range Rover Electric.
Just like a regular guard dog, ‘Rover’ has its own kennel at the plant, where it periodically lives and charges its 50V battery between shifts. However, unlike a regular dog, Boston Dynamics’ robot can operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and doesn’t get distracted by loud sounds, unusual sights or smells.
Fully automated to follow a range of pre-set routes, Rover conducts up to 24 patrols each day and night, using AI to physically open doors, ascend stairs and navigate high-traffic areas with diligence. Continuously taking measurements and inspecting valves and machinery, Rover eliminates the risk of human error in these tasks, while allowing engineers to better spend their time analysing Rover’s results to make more insightful business and maintenance predictions or to perform repairs.
Performing its duties with aplomb, the quadruped is able to do so thanks to the natural dexterity afforded by its four legs and robot arm. These in turn are maximised by its advanced onboard sensors – ‘hearing’ potential gas leaks that would otherwise not be sensed by human ears, and using thermal sensors to evaluate battery temperatures quickly, ensuring technicians can continue their work safely.
Gonzalo Ejarque-Rinaldini, PhD Automation and Robotics at JLR: “Key to JLR’s Reimagine strategy is a continual collaboration with the industry’s brightest minds, developing advanced robotics solutions that work in harmony with our employees for the uncompromising benefit of our clients.
“Enabling our engineers to work safer and smarter, collaborations such as this one with Boston Dynamics are key. Not only are they essential in realising our ambition to electrify our Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar brands by 2030, they also have an important role to play in ensuring that the final vehicles that roll off the line have only the very best EV battery technology within them.”
With Boston Dynamics’ Rover already performing vital duties within JLR’s EV build and test facility at Lyons Park, JLR is now scoping out future use scenarios for a fleet of robotic quadrupeds across its entire global industrial footprint. This includes at its Solihull plant where preparations are well underway for the launch of Ranger Rover Electric, and also where Jaguar will begin an exciting new era as a pure-electric modern luxury brand – the first of which will be a 4-door GT, the most powerful and sustainable Jaguar ever with a range of c.700 kms, priced from £100,000.
JLR’s investment into robotics forms part of the luxury vehicle manufacturer’s wider £18bn investment into its Reimagine strategy, with Lyons Park also proofing the use of plasma cleaning robots. These robots have a pivotal part to play, removing microscopic dust particles from battery cells ahead of bonding, which would otherwise not be visible to the human eye.
