让机器学习和人工智能进行施工通常是找到最有用的地方。AI算法可以扫描数据的数据，寻找人类一开始可能不会注意到的小矛盾或隐藏模式。现在，桑顿·托马塞蒂（Thornton Tomasetti）的工程师已将大量的处理能力应用于建筑物检查的棘手工作。

在Thornton Tomasetti的核心实验室开发了两年后，结果是T2D2，T2D2是一种计算机视觉，机器学习算法，可以识别照片或视频中构建外部的损害。不打算取代艰苦检查的艰难工作，而是将T2D2视为找到可能被忽略的隐藏损坏，并沿着乏味，艰难的过程加快损害。

“这将是有所指导的 - 工程师将审查检测 - 但总的来说，我们希望T2D2足够灵活，以寻找不同材料类型和结构类型的条件，” Thornton Tomasetti的人工智能副总裁兼人工智能总监Badri Hiriyur解释说。。“它可以用于任何类型的结构，但我们的主要目标是研究（需要]定期检查的衰老结构。”

After showing promise in an internal competition, Hiriyur and his team set out to train the algorithm on Thornton Tomasetti’s library of hundreds of thousands of images collected over decades of building inspections. Now able to work directly off of video and photos captured by drones, T2D2 can perform a “first pass” facade inspection before a human engineer has to get up close to the building.

在典型的图像上，T2D2通过了几个步骤。使用其数千个先前注释的图像的知识库，它迅速识别结构的几何形状并分配材料类型。然后，T2D2进行通过以识别每种材料上会发现的潜在损害。然后，它输出了图像的明显版本，潜在的外墙伤害突出显示并分类以进行审查。

While T2D2 was initially trained primarily on concrete structures, Hiriyur says its capabilities has been expanded. It can now find and classify damage on brick, masonry, stucco and other commonly used facade materials.

Thanks to the machine-learning elements of T2D2, the algorithm gradually improves the more it is used. “As we get more projects, that will generate more data. We’re going to use reinforcement learning to improve the models,” says Hiriyur. “An engineer can review the project as we do it and mark the false positives and negatives, helping us retrain our model.”

“Our engineers have found T2D2 to be valuable. This thing doesn’t get tired,” says Raymond Daddazio, Thornton Tomasetti senior consultant and the firm’s former president. “We’re not replacing the engineer, but just as radiologists can use AI to help find tumors, or as NASA astronomers use AI to find new craters on Mars, [T2D2] makes it easier to do, more efficiently and effectively than before.”

But a clever algorithm is only part of the solution. Hiriyur has overseen the spin-off of T2D2 into its own data analytics firm, and working in partnership with drone survey companies, it can offer a complete facade inspection service. T2D2 has already taken on several customers, and is in discussions with several large owners in New York City to inspect their buildings, perhaps even more often than the city’s mandated five-year interval.

Hiriyur说：“我们正在尝试重新考虑检查的方式。”尽管许多建筑所有者只对执行外墙检查感兴趣以满足监管要求，但使用无人机运行T2D2的费用较低，可以改变这一点。“这不仅是为了满足城市法规。更频繁的检查意味着建筑所有者可以进行小型修复以防止大问题。我们谈论的是节省数百万的维修费用。”他说。