AiviewGroup using Leica Geosystems UAV solution for bridge inspections

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 theiroitalia的自动贸易，在意大利维修3,408公里，从巴西到印度管理了5,000多公里的道路。

来自空中的基础设施检查

在其3,408公里的网络中l'Italia的自动贸易必须维持超过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l'Italia的自动贸易正在寻找更有效的方法，并开始与AiviewGroup在机器人解决方案上。

“We have been doing UAV bridge inspections with this UAV since 2012,” says Nicola Marietti, bridge inspector withAiviewGroup. “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.”

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.AiviewGroup已经开发了一种算法来评估拍摄图片并检测出针对缺陷分类学库的问题。

“我们有一个明确的过程,以便更好地在20tand 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.

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.

技术方法AiviewGroupand 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

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.

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.

This high quality data is based on traditional 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.

为了敦促无人机的自主性特征，甚至有机会通过使用Teach-In功能来自动化飞行，因此直播可以反复以相同的方式飞行以收集同一区域的可比较数据。

工业无人机是一个传感器平台，而不仅仅是一个成像平台。当“天空中的眼睛”获得超级大国，使其能够感测和捕获远远超出我们所看到的，还有更多可能的应用程序和见解。