New York City has big goals for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions over the next decade, with a big portion of them coming from buildings. Energy efficiency retrofits will account for a significant amount of those GHG reductions and technology can play a part in helping to identify where inefficiencies are in a building’s envelope (exterior walls and roof).
Opportunity: Developed out of NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, Building Diagnostic Robotics (BDR) created robotics tools and AI analytics to aid in assessing building envelope efficiency. Called EASEEbot, the tools include a UAV (drone) that can take video, thermal, and LiDAR imaging of a building exterior and a robot that scans roofs utilizing Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).
With the support of OTI and the Department Citywide Administrative Service’s (DCAS) Division of Energy Management, the BDR team’s received a $50,000 planning grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was later awarded a $1M grant to scale the program and provide data on buildings across the city.
Project Timeframe
November 2023 – August 2024
| Sponsors |
| New York University (NYU) |
| Building Diagnostics Robotics (BDR) |
| Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) |
| Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) |
| Project Category |
| Greenhouse Gas Emissions |
| Buildings |
| Drones |