Description
Climbing robots for both concrete and steel bridges and UAVs are being developed to support bridge inspection with advanced evaluation technologies at the INSPIRE University Transportation Center. They are mostly applicable to large open areas with little or no obstacles. For I-shaped beams or girders, climbing along the cross section of these structural members is not a trial task. In particular, a climbing robot may not have a sufficient footprint to make a safe turn from the inner to outer face of a top or bottom flange. In this case, an unmanned vehicle is conceived to facilitate I-girder inspection and deployment of climbing robots on the underside of bridge deck between two adjacent girders. The unmanned vehicle, in combination with the climbing robots and UAVs, will allow the inspection and maintenance of over 90% of the bridges in the National Bridge Inventory and will be relatively easy to be adopted by inspectors due to their familiarity with the concept of inspection platforms. It must be able to fly in air and traverse along a girder with an effective vehicle-bridge engagement mechanism for smooth transition from the flying to traversing mode as designed with support of limited stress analysis, prototyped, tested, modified with expanded functionality, and re-tested in laboratory and field conditions.
This project aims to develop and build a solar-powered mobile test facility based on a ground vehicle (e.g., recreational vehicle) to support field tests at bridge sites and provide wireless communication, such as satellite services, between no cell service bridge sites and the INSPIRE University Transportation Center. The mobile test facility is hereafter referred to as Bridge Inspection Robot Deployment Systems (BIRDS) that include climbing robots, UAVs, multimodal vehicles, sensors, nondestructive evaluation devices, data acquisition units, batteries, and miscellaneous tools to support field tests and wireless communication.
The BIRDS serve as a field station for data collection and transmission to the base station at the INSPIRE University Transportation Center, and as a means of transportation for a crew of two or three inspectors.
Presentation Date
03 Aug 2020, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Meeting Name
INSPIRE-UTC 2020 Annual Meeting
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Document Type
Presentation
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Bridge Inspection Robot Deployment Systems (BIRDS)
Climbing robots for both concrete and steel bridges and UAVs are being developed to support bridge inspection with advanced evaluation technologies at the INSPIRE University Transportation Center. They are mostly applicable to large open areas with little or no obstacles. For I-shaped beams or girders, climbing along the cross section of these structural members is not a trial task. In particular, a climbing robot may not have a sufficient footprint to make a safe turn from the inner to outer face of a top or bottom flange. In this case, an unmanned vehicle is conceived to facilitate I-girder inspection and deployment of climbing robots on the underside of bridge deck between two adjacent girders. The unmanned vehicle, in combination with the climbing robots and UAVs, will allow the inspection and maintenance of over 90% of the bridges in the National Bridge Inventory and will be relatively easy to be adopted by inspectors due to their familiarity with the concept of inspection platforms. It must be able to fly in air and traverse along a girder with an effective vehicle-bridge engagement mechanism for smooth transition from the flying to traversing mode as designed with support of limited stress analysis, prototyped, tested, modified with expanded functionality, and re-tested in laboratory and field conditions.
This project aims to develop and build a solar-powered mobile test facility based on a ground vehicle (e.g., recreational vehicle) to support field tests at bridge sites and provide wireless communication, such as satellite services, between no cell service bridge sites and the INSPIRE University Transportation Center. The mobile test facility is hereafter referred to as Bridge Inspection Robot Deployment Systems (BIRDS) that include climbing robots, UAVs, multimodal vehicles, sensors, nondestructive evaluation devices, data acquisition units, batteries, and miscellaneous tools to support field tests and wireless communication.
The BIRDS serve as a field station for data collection and transmission to the base station at the INSPIRE University Transportation Center, and as a means of transportation for a crew of two or three inspectors.
Comments
AS-4