Drones and AI Give Buildings an MRI to Cut Energy Waste and Costly Guesswork

Giving Buildings an "MRI" to Cut Energy Waste and Extend Asset Life

Older assets leak cash through roofs, windows, and weak envelopes. Lamarr.AI, founded by an MIT-led team, turns drone flights and thermal imaging into clear, quantified retrofit plans. Think of it as a building MRI: infrared + visible imagery, proprietary computer vision, and large language models that write reports you can act on.

For real estate owners and construction leaders, the value is simple: faster diagnostics, targeted interventions, and portfolio-level visibility. Less guesswork. More ROI.

How the system works

Order a scan. A trained drone team flies your property using a predefined plan. The platform ingests thousands of infrared and visual frames, reconstructs a 3D model, and flags issues in minutes - not weeks.

Results are specific, not vague heat maps. The platform labels root causes like infiltration/exfiltration, missing insulation, and water intrusion, then pins each anomaly to your 3D model. You also get cost estimates and expected returns based on building energy simulations.

Why owners care

• Reduce unnecessary capex: To date, clients in health care, higher ed, and multifamily avoided $3M+ in replacement costs through targeted fixes.
• Move from reactive to strategic: Portfolio diagnostics help you plan upgrades, bundle projects, and time investments to budgets and code cycles.
• Speed at scale: A 180,000-square-foot building can generate ~2,000 images. Manual review takes weeks. Lamarr.AI analyzes them in seconds.
• Extend asset life: Catch envelope failures early - more than 45% of construction defects trace back to the envelope.

What you get in the report

• Root-cause analysis for every anomaly
• 3D map of issues aligned to elevations and assemblies
• Cost and ROI modeling for each recommended fix
• Prioritized retrofit roadmap you can hand to facilities and GC partners

Field results you can benchmark

In Detroit, three municipal buildings were scanned with off-site drone operators - a first for this type of inspection. Across two buildings, the system identified 460+ issues including insulation gaps and moisture risks.

Energy simulations showed that targeted weatherization and window upgrades could cut HVAC energy use by up to 22%. The entire workflow took days, not months.

Built on research, ready for portfolios

Lamarr.AI grew from MIT's Building Technology research and has been supported by the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund, MITdesignX, and the MIT $100K (semifinalist). The team received a $1.8M award from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance the core science.

The company partners with drone providers worldwide and works across sectors - health care, higher education, multifamily, and public assets - in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and the UAE. The founders include CEO Tarek Rakha PhD '15, Professor John Fernández, and Research Scientist Norhan Bayomi SM '17, PhD '21.

Where this fits in your workflow

• Due diligence: Validate envelope performance pre-acquisition and factor real costs into pro formas.
• Capex planning: Allocate budget to the highest-ROI fixes across a campus or fund.
• Code and ESG: Document compliance paths and verify energy performance improvements.
• Construction QA/QC: Scan post-install to catch insulation and air barrier issues before closeout.
• Ongoing ops: Schedule periodic scans to prevent small leaks from becoming big repairs.

What makes it different

• Automation end-to-end: From flight plans to anomaly classification and report generation.
• Actionable specificity: Labels the problem, shows it in 3D, tells you what it costs, and what you get back.
• Portfolio scale: Off-site operators and standardized workflows reduce cost per building.

Bottom line for owners and builders

You don't need another thick audit that sits on a shelf. You need fast, defensible data tied to costs and outcomes. Lamarr.AI delivers envelope insights you can scope, price, and schedule - so you stop energy loss, avoid unnecessary replacements, and extend the life of assets.

Next steps

• Start with one asset that's bleeding energy or due for major envelope work.
• Use the report to prioritize fixes with the best payback and lowest disruption.
• Roll the process across your portfolio for consistent diagnostics and budgeting.

If you're upskilling your team on AI in operations and construction, explore practical learning paths here: AI courses by job.