Coordinated robotic system for civil structural health monitoring

Abstract

Abstract.With the recent advances in sensors, robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles, communication, and information technologies, it is now feasible to move towards the vision of ubiquitous cities, where virtually everything throughout the city is linked to an information system through technologies such as wireless networking and radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, to provide systematic and more efficient management of urban systems, including civil and mechanical infrastructure monitoring, to achieve the goal of resilient and sustainable societies. In this proposed system, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) is used to ascertain the coarse defect signature using panoramic imaging. This involves image stitching and registration so that a complete view of the surface is seen with reference to a common reference or origin point. Thereafter, crack verification and localization has been done using the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) approach which has been performed with the help of a coordinated robotic system. In which the first robot is placed at the top of the structure whereas the second robot is equipped with the designed MFL sensory system. With the initial findings, the proposed system identifies and localize the crack in the given structure.

A literature review of next-generation smart sensing technology in structural health monitoring

“…By comparing the data obtained from UAV‐based measurements and actual measurements of the lateral spread displacement, the 3D model of the pier had an average dimensional error of ±2.5%, whereas the 3D model of the bridge had an average dimensional error of ±1.0%. In another study, Qidwai and Akbar combined UAV visual inspection with a robotic magnetic flux leakage system to identify cracks in metallic structures. The imagery was performed with the aid of vision‐based inspection and image processing techniques including edge detection and Hough transform.…”