Abstract:

Over the last five years there has been increasing interest in the transformative potential of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) across numerous domains. The realm of transportation infrastructure systems is no exception in this regard. Many have correctly pointed out that the large-scale and distributed nature of our transportation infrastructure systems makes them uniquely suited to benefit from the low-cost imaging and remote sensing provided by UAS.,. One application of the UAS is bridge inspection; inspection from both a construction quality and routine safety inspection perspective. The ability to fly UAS into positions that are difficult to reach by an inspector has the potential to save time, reduce costs, and improve safety margins. An increasing number of bridge owners are exploring the use of UAS for bridge inspections through pilot studies and exploring the potential of these versatile systems. A UAS can provide the bridge owner very high-quality imagery to support bridge inspection. Integrating UAS into the bridge inspection process could provide an enhanced means of capturing needed data required for a complete, accurate, and compliant inspection and this information has the potential to also improve bridge management. While high quality imagery is a benefit, the amount of data collected can be a challenge. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) initiated a research study to investigate and document effective use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in bridge inspection. This paper documents the state of practice in data collection technologies deployed on UAS platforms, documents data quality assurance needed to perform a satisfactory bridge inspection and assessment, documents best practices for storing and archiving data, and provides guidance on how the collected data could supplement current bridge inspection practice and could be integrated into bridge management systems. The impact of UAS on the costs associated with bridge and infrastructure inspection in other studies is also documented in this paper.