Dr. Ghulam Dastagir Khan
Assistant Professor, College of Engineering
Every day, thousands of people enter hospitals, universities, airports, schools, and government buildings with the expectation that these facilities are safe and properly maintained. Keeping such buildings in good condition requires regular inspection, careful monitoring, and considerable effort from engineers and maintenance teams. Artificial Intelligence and robotics now offer new ways to support this work.
Artificial Intelligence is already changing many areas of daily life, including healthcare, transportation, education, and manufacturing. One area that receives less attention, however, is the use of intelligent service robots for building inspection and facility management.
Consider a robot that can move through a university building after working hours, inspect fire safety equipment, identify cracks or water leakage, check lighting fixtures, travel between floors using an ordinary elevator, and prepare an inspection report for the maintenance team. A few years ago, such a system would have seemed highly ambitious. Today, advances in robotics, computer vision, and autonomous navigation are making it possible.
For Oman, these developments are particularly relevant. Oman Vision 2040 places strong emphasis on research, innovation, digital transformation, and the development of a knowledge-based economy. Intelligent robotic systems can contribute to these goals while also addressing practical problems faced by organisations responsible for large public and private facilities.
Building inspection is one area where such technology can have a direct impact.
Hospitals, universities, schools, airports, hotels, government offices, and other large facilities require regular inspection of safety equipment, emergency systems, lighting, and structural conditions. Much of this work is still carried out manually. Engineers and maintenance staff spend significant time moving through buildings, checking equipment, recording observations, and preparing reports. As buildings become larger and more complex, these routine activities place an increasing demand on both time and manpower.
This practical problem motivated my research at Sultan Qaboos University. My team and I have been studying how Artificial Intelligence and robotics can support engineers in carrying out building inspections more efficiently. The aim is not to replace maintenance personnel, but to provide them with robotic tools that can perform repetitive inspection tasks, collect reliable information, and help them make better maintenance decisions.
Our work combines autonomous navigation, computer vision, Artificial Intelligence, and robotic manipulation to develop a mobile robotic platform capable of operating inside real buildings.
One of the more difficult problems we addressed was something that people normally do without thinking: using an elevator.
For a person, entering an elevator and travelling to another floor is a simple task. For an autonomous robot, however, it involves several coordinated actions. The robot must locate the elevator, recognise its controls, position itself correctly, interact with the buttons, enter safely when the doors open, travel to the required floor, exit, and then continue its inspection mission.
Some robotic systems overcome this difficulty by communicating electronically with specially equipped or “smart” elevators. While effective, this approach depends on modifications to the building and may not be practical for older facilities.
Our approach was different. Rather than adapting the building to the robot, we wanted the robot to work within the building as it already exists. Using onboard cameras, AI-based perception, robotic manipulation, and autonomous navigation, the system was developed to operate a conventional passenger elevator without requiring major changes to the existing infrastructure.
This is important because many buildings in Oman were not designed with service robots in mind. A system that can operate within existing infrastructure has a much clearer path towards practical use.
The work was also tested beyond computer simulation. The robotic platform was integrated and experimentally evaluated in a real multi-storey academic building. During the experiments, the robot navigated indoor spaces, travelled between floors using a conventional passenger elevator, located inspection targets, and carried out assigned tasks autonomously.
The robot was also equipped with AI-based vision capabilities for identifying objects and visible maintenance problems. These included fire extinguishers, lighting fixtures, cracks, moisture-related damage, peeling paint, and stains. Inspection findings could then be recorded together with their locations and organized into reports for maintenance personnel.
The value of such systems is not simply that they automate a task. Early identification of maintenance problems can reduce repair costs, improve safety, extend the useful life of buildings, and allow maintenance resources to be used more effectively.
In a hospital, for example, routine inspections could be carried out during quieter periods with minimal disturbance to patients and staff. Universities could inspect facilities after teaching hours. Airports, hotels, and government buildings could use robotic inspections to support preventive maintenance while allowing engineers to devote more of their time to problems that require technical judgement and experience.
These applications are closely connected to the broader goals of Oman Vision 2040. They show how research carried out within Omani universities can contribute to digital transformation while also addressing practical needs within the country.
Universities should not be judged only by the number of papers they publish. An equally important part of their role is to turn knowledge into solutions that benefit society. Research becomes particularly valuable when it moves from the laboratory into real environments and begins addressing problems faced by industry, government, and the wider community.
Artificial Intelligence and robotics will increasingly become part of the way buildings and public facilities are managed. The important question is how these technologies are developed and how effectively they are used to support people.
The robots we are developing are not intended to replace engineers or facility managers. Their role is to assist them by carrying out repetitive inspections, collecting information consistently, and identifying problems that require human attention. Final decisions, technical judgement, and responsibility remain with people.
The buildings of the future will therefore not become “smart” simply because they contain more sensors or advanced equipment. They will become smarter because information is collected and used more effectively to keep them safe, efficient, and sustainable. Research in Artificial Intelligence and robotics gives Oman an opportunity to develop these capabilities locally and apply them to the facilities that people depend on every day.