PFI-TT: Autonomous Robotic Systems for Bridge Inspection and Evaluation

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to significantly improve the structural health inspection and monitoring of civil infrastructures (bridges, tunnels, dams, etc.) by using automated and non-destructive inspection robots. More than 35% of the 600,000 bridges in the U.S. have been subject to extreme deterioration due to aging, various mechanical and weather conditions, inadequate maintenance, and deficiencies in inspection and evaluation. The cost of inspecting and repairing deteriorating highway bridges in the U.S. alone is estimated at more than $140 billion. Currently, bridges are inspected manually by using visual inspection, chain drag, and non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques. However, manual inspection techniques are too slow, labor intensive, and create traffic congestion, leading to demand for efficient, cost-effective, and safe inspection and evaluation. The proposed innovation through new NDE robotic development will bridge the gap between these approaches, allowing inspectors to assess bridge conditions in a timely manner. The project is expected to, for the first time, enable widespread use of advanced robotic technologies across more than 600,000 bridges in the U.S. and will also expand to the international civil infrastructure inspection market. The proposed project will advance the development of bridge inspection robots to automate the NDE data collection process and filter NDE data to enable accurate and reliable assessment of a bridge's condition. Research objectives include: development of hardware and software for NDE sensor-robot integration, non-contact acoustic array for fast inspections, NDE data processing algorithms for automated inspection and evaluation, and three-dimensional data visualization for seamless assessment of a bridge deck's condition. Extensive tests and deployment of the robotic platforms on bridges and other civil infrastructures will be conducted. If successful, the resulting integrated prototype will allow fast, accurate detection and evaluation of bridge conditions and will create a standard tool to enable wide and efficient use of NDE technologies to inspect other infrastructure. The project is expected to represent a major advancement within civil engineering and infrastructure maintenance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.