United States Department of Transportation
i
Unmanned surface vessel (USV) systems for bridge inspection : final report.
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2016-08-01
[PDF-6.40 MB]
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Edition:Final report
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Abstract:The use of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) for bridge inspection has been explored. The following issues were considered: (1) the requirements of and
current techniques utilized in on-water bridge inspection; (2) USV design and configuration considerations for USV-based bridge inspection; (3) use of
acoustic sensing techniques for imaging underwater bridge structures and channel bottom features; (4) the control and dynamic positioning of USVs for
bridge inspection; (5) the use of advanced robotics techniques for improving vehicle navigation under bridges and the mapping of bridge features; and lastly,
(6) recommendations for the addition of standard operating procedures to accommodate the use of USVs for bridge inspection. A proof of concept system
was developed and tested using an existing USV at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) outfitted with a real-time imagining sonar. Field experiments were
conducted with the system at several sites near the city of Carrabelle, Florida and in Dania Beach, Florida. Live demonstrations of the system were also
conducted at the 2015 Florida Automated Vehicles Summit. The system was able to autonomously collect images of bridge structures, both underwater and
at the waterline, by traversing a series of preprogrammed waypoints along a bridge and station-keeping at locations of interest. The results of the field tests
and background literature survey are presented, and a set of recommendations for use of USV-based bridge inspection systems is given. It is suggested that
the application of advanced robotics techniques for Human-Robot-Interaction and autonomous mapping/imaging can improve the preliminary inspection
approach implemented during this study.
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