使用Leica Geosystems无人机解决方案进行桥梁检查的AiviewGroup

使用Leica Geosystems的无人机（UAV）来创建高度精确的桥梁检查数据，客户公司AiviewGroupis 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 theAutostrade per I’Italia, servicing 3,408 kilometres in Italy and managing more than 5,000 km of roadways from Brazil to India.

Infrastructure inspections from the air

Within its network of 3,408 km roadways,Autostrade per l’Italiahas to maintain more than 4,200 bridges, viaducts and tunnels. Every bridge must be visually inspected twice a year by law with a more in-depth inspection with an engineer on a yearly cycle. With this large number of bridges to inspect in mind,Autostrade per l’Italia正在寻找更有效的方法，并开始与AiviewGroupon a robotic solution.

“自2012年以来，我们一直在使用该无人机进行UAV桥梁检查。”AiviewGroup. “We found the visionary within this customer and have built some success while developing specific software and methods for managing bridge inspections with a UAV at the centre of the information technology solution.”

Leica GeoSystems从UAV顶部的相机顶部的摄像机的特殊安装座使工作人员特写镜头在甲板下和紧密的位置。使用专业飞行员来控制无人机，可确保桥下控制人员的安全性并处理收集的数据。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.”

Even though the software takes care of the analysis and reporting, there is still a heavy human element in the workflow for conducting each bridge survey and verifying the autonomously created reports with the knowledge of a civil and structural engineer.

TheAiviewGrouphas 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.

The technological approach theAiviewGroupand their partners came up with makes it possible to inspect bridges without shutting down the traffic. A usual inspection would require at least one line to be shut down in order to inspect the bridge. Furthermore, UAVs require much smaller crews, which reduces the costs for the client. Instead of a special highway vehicle and three-person crew with an arm and bucket for placing the inspector under the bridge, and the corresponding six-person traffic safety personnel, the UAV works below traffic with a three-person crew. A further cost saving comes from the reduced time it takes for each inspection using the UAV.

Added value for inspections

考虑到所有这些优势，AiviewGroupinsists that when it comes to robotics and automation, a team with specialties and professionalism is always required for the demands of high precision inspection and analysis.

玛丽埃蒂说：“每次飞行中的风险都很高，当我们外出进行检查时，我们每天飞行四到六个小时。”“我们在整天的艰难环境中有条不紊地移动。没有专业人士，这项工作是不可能的。”

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.

To use UAVs and other automated data collection tools for surveying and inspecting infrastructural constructions is a big step up in ways engineers will work in the future. Redefining these workflows with the newest technology is a disruption with traditional surveying, but the data that can be collected now makes this approach byAiviewGroupa much more informative input for clients and engineers.

此高质量数据基于传统的图像传感器作为信息来源。通过这些方法已经有效，还有更多选择可以结合无人机和传感器技术的可能性，这些技术可以收集全面的数据来评估构建状态（例如，使用六角形平台拟合激光雷达传感器，以创建高准确性3D模型或热传感器检测导致热量摩擦的缺陷）。多光谱或高光谱传感器将使客户能够获取材料指纹并分析已捕获的区域的材料特性，从而深入了解下面地面的物种类型，甚至是地面的矿物质。

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.