Visual Slope Inspection using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

Abstract

Nowadays the natural slope cuts for the purpose of the construction of public transport is ubiquitous in Malaysia. These cuts cause the changes of the natural slope structure thus make the slope structure become unstable and causes to rubble. In order to avoid the slope’s failure, the monitoring work on slope should be carried out by the responsible party to ensure that the slopes are in good condition and the advance warning can be issued before the occurrence of the rubble. Conventional method of slope monitoring is extremely high risk. Usually, maintenance personnel will climb up to the top of the slope to take pictures for the purpose of monitoring reports [1]. Slope monitoring activities are also limited as climbing steep slope structures require a lot of energy and takes quite a while. Therefore, this research aims to explore the ability of the micro UAV aircraft usage in order to monitor the slope condition. The aim of study is to monitor the high risk slope using UAV. To achieve the aim, the following objectives are formulated by produce orthomosaic image, Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and Digital Surface Model (DSM) using pix4d mapper software, analysis the image of drainage system taken by UAV and developed contour of the slopes and analyse watershed of the slope using global mapper software. In this paper, the drainage on the slope becomes the focus since its plays an important role as it reduces the existence of groundwater and to transport the rainwater pours on slope surface. The study was conducted at two places where first at Kuala Pilah Federal Route 361 and second at Jalan Bangi Selangor State Route B17. The processes involved were planning and preparation before flight, data retrieval using UAV aircraft, image processing using Pix4dmapper software and assessment of the slope using Global Mapper software. Subsequently, the slope condition can be determine based on the monitoring of the slope drainage. Through this study, the condition of slope surface can be seen by images taken from UAV such as cracking on slope structure and excessive vegetation growth in slope drainage. Besides that, the slope inclination, height and water flows on surface can be known. Therefore, the usage of UAV aircraft for slope monitoring and inspection was successfully and the aims of this paper was achieved since the device shows a very good tendency and the ability to monitor the slope condition.