AASHTO Journal, 29 January 2016
The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center is highlighting the advantages of “infrastructure inspection robots” to give close-up reviews of aging roads and bridges without the traffic disruptions or safety risks of having engineers put eyes on those facilities.
The center in Cambridge, Mass., is a unit of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It issued a recent report examining many ways in which transportation agencies can employ technology from connected vehicles to connected infrastructure and pedestrians.
Its section on using “robots” instead of humans for hard-to-reach inspection tasks follows initial exploration by several state DOTs into how they may use aerial or underwater drones for such work.
Traditionally, putting inspectors under a high bridge to check underneath requires shutting traffic lanes and lifting the engineers down from the elevated bridge deck or lifting them up high from a surface below.
“Civil infrastructure that was built in the mid-20th century or earlier is reaching the end of its service life,” the Volpe report said, “making assessment of structural integrity and deterioration a top priority. Robotic inspection technologies use tools such as aerial and surface robots, sensors, and 3D imaging to advance inspection methods of aging infrastructure.”
It said that prototypes of such machines “have demonstrated the ability to detect internal and external infrastructure corrosion and damage using advanced sensors, providing more information to inspectors and agency decision-makers.”
Using robotic technology, it added, “can reduce workplace injuries by accessing areas of the infrastructure that put even highly trained inspectors at risk, such as elevated rail tracks and underwater bridge pilings. Robotic infrastructure inspection also has the potential to reduce traffic disruption, as faster inspections may shorten the duration of lane closures.”