1.1b Digital inspections
Challenge
Maintenance of infrastructure assets relies on visual inspections, and this has different difficulties. It is expensive due to the direct costs and because of the disruptions to the traffic. Time-consuming since inspectors need to be in close range and use different types of machinery to obtain results. They heavily depend on the experience of the inspectors and thus the results can be subjective. It can be dangerous for inspectors to access some parts of the structure. It is essential to optimize the inspection process and maintenance of these assets to ensure their lifespan at a minor cost.
Solution
A combination of drones and computer techniques to perform digital inspections. With the use of drones, we navigate through complex structures, improve access to hard-to-reach parts of the structure and thus avoid the use of expensive machinery. Drones also provide a safer inspection by avoiding human inspectors access dangerous locations. We efficiently analyze the data gathered with machine learning to identify damages and potential anomalies in a faster way than a human inspector would do it.
We use computer vision techniques to quantify the damages and obtain objective results.
Impact on society
- Safer way for inspectors to perform their jobs.
- Reduced costs, both direct costs and costs related to the disruption of traffic.
- Faster and more reliable way to obtain results for an optimized process.