Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) offer companies a potential reliable and safe solution to support their operations by accessing areas that are otherwise too difficult, without extensive manpower and support. Although rapid gains have been made in this field of technology, there remains the need to carry out advanced contact non-destructive testing (NDT) in order for UAS systems to truly become the primary method of facility inspection and monitoring of large civil infrastructure. Currently, the sensor equipment being produced for use with UAS are limited to a range of imaging equipment such as video cameras through to thermal imaging cameras, surveying and mapping technology. As a result, human inspections coupled with advanced sensing systems are still required in parallel with the UAS system, especially for critical infrastructure inspections. As a result, UAS inspection systems are not realising their performance potential, and therefore unable to deliver productivity increases and cost savings. The address this problem, the project consortium will develop an unmanned Aerial SyStem for Advanced contact Inspection (ASSAI). The ASSAI system will be initially tailored of civil structures, in particular bridges, but can be considered a platform technology with a wide range of potential future applications. The project will deliver significant productivity increases for our customers, and provide exciting growth to the industrial partners in the project.

The SmartBridge project aims to revolutionise the monitoring and maintenance of bridge infrastructure by developing an innovative knowledge-based digital platform that will enable the visualisation of bridges’ condition and degradation. These virtual models or twins will combine the multiscale 3D numerical models with sensor data collected and processed from real bridge infrastructure, incorporating operating environmental conditions and inspection history. Condition monitoring sensors including wireless accelerometers, displacement transducers, temperature sensors, strain gauges, barometers, hygrometers etc will be placed on bridges and data will be collected, processed and transferred to the digital twin, continuously resulting in a close to real digital twin of the bridge showing real-time conditions. Such a platform will allow bridge operators to predict failure and plan maintenance before incidents occur. It will reduce maintenance costs by 20% and downtime by 60%. The application of SmartBridge will include (1) Continous remote condition monitoring of bridges infrastructures (2) Risk-based inspection approach to perform intelligent maintenance operations, (3) A better understanding of lifecycle and degradation behaviour of bridges in different operating conditions.