Large Structures Monitoring Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Chiu, Wing Kong; Ong, Wern; Kuen, Thomas; Courtney, Frank

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.04.503

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The use of UAVs is most useful if they are capable of remotely monitoring a large structure. Chiu et al evaluated the use of UAVs for monitoring of large‐scale structures. The study used a remotely operated aerial vehicle for displacement measurement of a massive floating membrane spanning over 170 × 420 m in a wastewater treatment plant.…”

Section: Next‐generation Sensing Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Sony

Laventure

Sadhu

2019

Struct Control Health Monit

396

183

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Summary Advent of computationally efficient smartphones, inexpensive high‐resolution cameras, drones, and robotic sensors has brought a new era of next‐generation intelligent monitoring systems for civil infrastructure. Vibration‐based condition assessment has garnered as a prominent method of evaluating the health of large‐scale infrastructure. The use of contact‐based sensors for acquiring vibration data becomes uneconomical and tedious due to their instrumentation cost, centralized nature, and densification required to collect sufficient data for system identification of modern complex structures. A need to advance and develop alternative methods for efficient sensing system results in next‐generation measurement technology of structural health monitoring. The abundance of handheld smartphones with easily programmable framework has helped in modifying relevant software to acquire vibration data using embedded sensors in the smartphone. The inexpensive cameras have been used to capture images and videos that are utilized to understand the structural behavior with the aid of advanced signal processing techniques. The inaccessible components of structures require noncontact sensors such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or so‐called drones and mobile sensors to acquire structural data. To the authors' knowledge, this paper first time presents a comprehensive review of a suite of next‐generation smart sensing technology that has been developed in recent years within the context of structural health monitoring. The state‐of‐the‐art methods have been presented by conducting a detailed literature review of the recent applications of smartphones, UAVs, cameras, and robotic sensors used in acquiring and analyzing the vibration data for structural condition monitoring and maintenance.

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Section: Next‐generation Sensing Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Sony

Laventure

Sadhu

2019

Struct Control Health Monit

396

183

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Figure 3b shows the aligned tie-points profile of the covered anaerobic lagoon. The work presented is built on the previous works as described in [20,21], where the optimal flight parameters and aerial images photogrammetry setting were studied. A single grid flight path is chosen with image overlapping percentage set to be more than 70% in both forward and side direction.…”

Section: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav) Photogrammetry Set Upmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote Monitoring of Floating Covers Using UAV Photogrammetry

Wong

Vien

et al. 2020

Remote Sensing

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High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is commonly the material of choice for covered anaerobic lagoons (CAL) at wastewater treatment plants. The membrane floats on the wastewater, and hence is called a “floating cover”, and is used for odour control and to harvest the methane-rich biogas as a renewable resource to generate electricity. The floating cover is an expensive and high-value asset that demands an efficient methodology for the determination of a set of engineering quantities for structural integrity assessment. Given the dynamics of the anaerobic activities under the floating cover, the state of deformation of the floating cover is an engineering measurand that is useful for its structural health assessment. A non-contact measurement strategy is preferred as it offers practical and safety-related benefits over other methods. In collaboration with Melbourne Water Corporation (MWC), an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) assisted photogrammetry approach was developed to address this need. Following the definition of the appropriate flight parameters required to quantify the state of deformation of the cover, a series of periodic flights were operated over the very large floating covers at MWC’s Western Treatment Plant (WTP) at Werribee, Victoria, Australia. This paper aims to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of this inspection technique to determine the state of deformation of the floating covers measured over a ten-month period.

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“…The issues of radial distortion in 3D reconstruction (Wu [ 13 ]) is well documented. Indeed, our work preliminary work (Chiu et al [ 14 ]) was performed to adequately define the parameters required to avoid these issues (see also Li et al [ 15 ]). As reported in Chiu et al [ 14 ], the scanning of a large area (1881 m 2 ) took approximately 4 m. This provides an efficient means towards the development of a robust non-contact strain measurement strategy for large membrane.…”

Section: Approach To Monitoring Membrane Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, our work preliminary work (Chiu et al [ 14 ]) was performed to adequately define the parameters required to avoid these issues (see also Li et al [ 15 ]). As reported in Chiu et al [ 14 ], the scanning of a large area (1881 m 2 ) took approximately 4 m. This provides an efficient means towards the development of a robust non-contact strain measurement strategy for large membrane. The ability of the photogrammetry methodology to define the details of an undulating terrain was presented by Chiu et al and is briefly described in this paper.…”

Section: Approach To Monitoring Membrane Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Determination of the State of Strain of Large Floating Covers Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Aided Photogrammetry

Ong

Chiu

Kuen

et al. 2017

Sensors

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Floating covers used in waste water treatment plants are one of the many structures formed with membrane materials. These structures are usually large and can spread over an area measuring 470 m × 170 m. The aim of this paper is to describe recent work to develop an innovative and effective approach for structural health monitoring (SHM) of such large membrane-like infrastructure. This paper will propose a potentially cost-effective non-contact approach for full-field strain and stress mapping using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mounted with a digital camera and a global positioning system (GPS) tracker. The aim is to use the images acquired by the UAV to define the geometry of the floating cover using photogrammetry. In this manner, any changes in the geometry of the floating cover due to forces acting beneath resulting from its deployment and usage can be determined. The time-scale for these changes is in terms of weeks and months. The change in the geometry can be implemented as input conditions to a finite element model (FEM) for stress prediction. This will facilitate the determination of the state of distress of the floating cover. This paper investigates the possibility of using data recorded from a UAV to predict the strain level and assess the health of such structures. An investigation was first conducted on a laboratory sized membrane structure instrumented with strain gauges for comparison against strains, which were computed from 3D scans of the membrane geometry. Upon validating the technique in the laboratory, it was applied to a more realistic scenario: an outdoor test membrane structure and capable UAV were constructed to see if the shape of the membrane could be computed. The membrane displacements were then used to calculate the membrane stress and strain, state demonstrating a new way to perform structural health monitoring on membrane structures.

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Large Structures Monitoring Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Cited by 20 publications

References 3 publications

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

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

Remote Monitoring of Floating Covers Using UAV Photogrammetry

Determination of the State of Strain of Large Floating Covers Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Aided Photogrammetry

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