Application of Computer Vision Technology to Structural Health Monitoring of Engineering Structures

Abstract

The computer vision technology has gained great advances and applied in a variety of industry fields. It has some unique advantages over the traditional technologies such as high speed, high accuracy, low noise, anti-electromagnetic interference, etc. In the last decade, the technology of computer vision has been widely employed in the field of structure health monitoring (SHM). Many specific hardware and algorithms have been developed to meet different kinds of monitoring demands. This chapter presents three application scenarios of computer vision technology for health monitoring of engineering structures, including bridge inspection and evaluation with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), recognition and surveillance of foreign object intrusion for railway system, and identification and tracking of concrete cracking. The principles and procedures of three application scenarios are addressed following with the experimental study, and the possibilities and ideas for the application of computer vision technology to other monitoring items are also discussed.