Hydraulic Inspection Vehicle Explorer (HIVE) Culvert Upgrade

Details

• Creators:
  Huston, Dryver ; Xia, Tian ; Gamble, Brandon ; Trombley, Evan ; Reddy, Krishna ; Hoefer, Alexander ; Fath, Alireza ; Dennis, Leah
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Vermont. College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
• Corporate Contributors:
  Vermont Agency of Transportation ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Culverts
  • Hydraulics
  • Inspection
  • Vehicles
  • Wireless communication systems
  • Robot vision
  • Testing
  • Technology transfer
  • Data communications
  • Guidelines
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  2026-02
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Vermont
• Edition:
  Final Report: 2023-2026
• Corporate Publisher:
  Vermont Agency of Transportation
• Description:
  This project reports on the research, development and test of low-cost robotic vehicles, known as Hydraulic Inspection Vehicle Explorers (HIVEs), for the condition assessment of small culverts. This research builds upon previous research to develop improved low-cost robotic culvert inspection systems, i.e., the HIVE 2.0. The motivation is that culvert failures can be expensive and pose public safety hazards. Improved methods of assessing the condition of culverts facilitate the planning of maintenance and replacement projects. The policy of the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) is to inspect every culvert once every 5 years, resulting in about 9,600 culverts needing to be inspected annually. Culverts with small diameters, i.e. approximately 1-m (36-in) or less, preclude human inspection. The intended use of HIVEs is for small culvert inspections. This report describes the design, build and test of three HIVE variants: 1. HIVE 2.1 - A new and improved robot based on the Sherman tank platform of the HIVE 2.0; 2. HIVE 3.0 - A robot built on the same chassis as the HIVE 2.1, but with more sophisticated capabilities including teaming and increased autonomy; and 3. The HIVE 4.0 - A lower cost HIVE built on a separately sourced chassis.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  GR1846
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/94027/dot_94027_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 14.05 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f01babb69b517ef1cbbfb3a5d8354324136a6933c18b01a0628524eef91d3f30fa1918f17d08f7b05e5546b5e270dba548d1dfd8db11d6d950d433fbd5ec3055