Remote Inspection and Monitoring of Civil Engineering Structures Based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

AbstractThis article describes recent contributes for the remote inspection and monitoring of civil engineering structures with the support of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Regarding the remote inspection using UAVs, a computer-vision methodology for the automatic crack detection on Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures is presented. Two different image processing techniques are used: one based on heuristic features and other based on deep learning. Both techniques are successfully applied to the identification of the cracks on a building facade. In what concerns the monitoring applications, an innovative methodology for estimating in-plane structural displacements based on video systems integrated on UAVs is presented. As the structure and the UAV are both in motion, the estimation of the absolute structural displacements involves, first, the evaluation of the relative displacements of the UAV-structure based on target tracking, and second, the UAV motion subtraction based on the data derived from an embedded Inertial Measuring Unit (IMU). The validation of the proposed methodology is based on an exploratory test performed in the field, which conducted to very satisfactory and promising results.KeywordsRemote inspectionMonitoringUnmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)Concrete crackInertial Measuring Unit (IMU)