AiviewGroupusing Leica Geosystems UAV solution for bridge inspections

Using the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) from Leica Geosystems to create highly precise data for bridge inspections, customer companyAiviewGroupis getting ahead in surveying, maintaining and inspecting more than 4,000 infrastructural buildings each year.

As the first country with roads constructed especially for motor vehicles, Italy introduced the autos trade. First built in 1921, the high-speed roadways have continued to expand ever since. Owned by the Italian government but maintained and operated by a group of concessionaires for profit, the largest of these companies is theiroitalia的自动贸易, servicing 3,408 kilometres in Italy and managing more than 5,000 km of roadways from Brazil to India.

来自空中的基础设施检查

在其3,408公里的网络中Autostrade per l’Italia必须维持超过4,200个桥梁，高架桥和隧道。每年必须通过法律对每座桥梁进行两次视觉检查，并在年度周期内与工程师进行更深入的检查。考虑到大量的桥梁，请记住Autostrade per l’Italiawas looking for more efficient ways and started a collaboration withAiviewGroupon a robotic solution.

“We have been doing UAV bridge inspections with this UAV since 2012,” says Nicola Marietti, bridge inspector withAiviewGroup。“我们在该客户中找到了有远见的人，并在开发特定的软件和方法的同时，在信息技术解决方案的中心使用无人机管理桥梁检查。”

这special mount for a camera on the top of the UAV from Leica Geosystems allows the crew close-up looks under the deck and in tight spots. The use of professional pilots to control the UAV ensures safety for the controlling crew underneath the bridge and to process the collected data.AiviewGrouphas developed an algorithm to evaluate the taken pictures and detect issues against a library of defect taxonomy.

“We have a well-defined procedure to better understand what kind of problem might be occurring with the bridge and how to report that to the customer,” states Marietti. “The algorithm provides a status for different elements of the infrastructure. We check for problems with cement, iron of the bridge, vegetation, and the environment in general.”

即使该软件负责分析和报告，工作流程中仍然存在着一个沉重的人类元素，用于进行每个桥梁调查并验证自主创建的报告，并了解民事和结构工程师。

这AiviewGrouphas created the cloud platform Ai Inspection in which the company manages all assets of their customers. The entire workflow of an inspection, from the planning to the fieldwork analysis can be done within this software.

这technological approach theAiviewGroup他们的合作伙伴提出了可以检查桥梁而不关闭交通的可能性。通常的检查将至少需要关闭一条线才能检查桥梁。此外，无人机需要较小的船员，这降低了客户的成本。UAV不是将检查员和相应的六人交通安全人员放在桥下的特殊高速公路和三人船员，而是与三人的船员一起工作。每次使用UAV所花费的时间减少了进一步节省的成本。

检查的附加值

With all these advantages in mind,AiviewGroup坚持认为，在机器人技术和自动化方面，一支具有专业和专业精神的团队总是需要高精度检查和分析的需求。

“The risk is high on every flight, and we fly between four and six hours in a day when we go out to do inspections,” says Marietti. “We move methodically in a difficult environment for the whole day. It’s impossible to do this job without specialised people.”

Each inspection follows the same pattern. Before taking off with the UAV, roughly 30 per cent of the time and effort are spent on planning the flight. On the spot, the multicopter is the main tool, along with the monitor station for real-time evaluation during the flight. The actual flight takes up to about 10 per cent of the overall mission and the remaining 60 per cent are spent on the post processing, evaluation and presentation of the collected data.

使用无人机和其他自动数据收集工具来测量和检查基础设施构造是工程师将来将运作的方式的重要进步。用最新技术重新定义这些工作流程是对传统测量的中断，但是现在可以收集的数据可以通过AiviewGroup对于客户和工程师来说，这是更具信息的意见。

这种高质量的数据是基于传统的imagery sensors as the source of information. With these methods already working, there are still more options to combine the possibilities of an UAV and sensor technologies which collect comprehensive data to evaluate the state of a construction (e.g., the use of hexacopter platform fitting LiDAR sensors in order to create high-accuracy 3D models or thermal sensors to detect defects causing heat due friction). Multispectral or hyperspectral sensors would allow customers to get the materials fingerprint and to analyse the material properties of the area that has been captured, giving insight on detailing species type and even mineral properties of the ground below.

To urge the autonomous character of UAVs there are even opportunities to automate the flight by using the teach-in function, so the copter can repeatedly fly the same way to collect comparable data of the same areas.

Giving the possibilities to adapt nearly every sensor needed onto the UAV and into the workflow, the industrial UAV is a sensor platform rather than just an imaging platform. There are many more possible applications and insights when the “eye in the sky” is given superpowers that make it capable of sensing and capturing far more than we can see.