Abstract

This study aims to develop and evaluate Bridge Inspection Robot Deployment Systems (BIRDS) that support automated bridge inspection. BIRDS include uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), structural crawlers, and/or their combination. A particular type of the BIRDS, which is a hybrid flying and traversing system called BridgeBot, is designed to aid in the inspection of steel and concrete girder bridges. BridgeBot has evolved in four prototypes (I-IV) for improved structural, mechanical, electronic, and control systems over the past five years. The first two prototypes built in Phases I and II were tested in laboratory to understand the feasibility of hybrid flying and traversing around a simulated bridge girder. The last two prototypes produced in Phases III and IV were evaluated for components and system performance under indoor and outdoor conditions. Prototypes III and IV can also launch off a palm-sized crawler to inspect difficult-to-reach areas for defects such as steel weld cracks and bolt/rivet corrosion. Through extensive tests in real-world environments, the BridgeBot has demonstrated superior performance to commercial drones in stability under gusty winds, data consistency under illumination changes, and operation time under limited battery power. By integrating crawler launching into UAV flying and traversing functions, the BridgeBot equipped with remote sensing and nondestructive testing capabilities can assist in both global visual inspection and local structural assessment efficiently, safely, reliably, and cost-effectively. The added anti-collision mechanism and water landing capability of the BridgeBot reduce operation risk during inspections.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Research Center/Lab(s)

INSPIRE - University Transportation Center

Sponsor(s)

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590

Comments

Principal Investigator: Genda Chen

Grant #: USDOT # 69A3551747126

Grant Period: 11/30/2016 - 09/30/2024

Project Period: 04/01/2019 - 09/30/2024

This investigation was conducted under the auspices of the INSPIRE University Transportation Center.

Keywords and Phrases

Robot, bridge inspection, unmanned, hybrid

Report Number

INSPIRE-024

Document Type

Technical Report

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

September 30, 2024

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