Interest in and use of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) has increased in the past 10 years. One application of considerable interest to transportation agencies and their private sector partners is supplementing highway bridge inspections. They have shown particular interest in performing safety inspections of bridge elements that are typically costly for bridge owners. By using UAS, the bridge superstructure and substructure can be assessed without requiring lanes of traffic to close or exposing inspectors to traffic. For bridges over rivers or other water bodies, UAS can collect data underneath or along the fascia without the need to close traffic lanes to use a snooper truck or similar system to inspect hard-to-access bridge elements. However, research has not yet focused on the ability of UAS technologies to support the collection of element-level bridge inspection data in accordance with the AASHTO Manual for Bridge Element Inspection (MBEI) methodology and format. Guidelines needed to be provided for state DOTs to select the appropriate UAS technologies for element-level bridge inspection.
Under NCHRP Project 12-122, “Proposed AASHTO Guidelines for Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems Technologies for Element-Level Bridge Inspection,” Michael Baker International was asked to develop strategies to assist state departments of transportation with using UAS technologies to inspect and assess bridge element conditions. The research team recommended draft language regarding the use of UAS for collecting element-level data during bridge inspections for consideration by AASHTO.
In addition to the final report published as NCHRP Research Report 1114, the materials listed below are available on the National Academies Press website nap.nationalacademies.org) by searching for NCHRP Research Report 1114: Uncrewed Aerial Systems Applications for Bridge Inspections: Element-Level Bridge Data Collection:
- Appendix A: Industry Survey
- Appendix B: Defect Detectability Rankings
- Standalone Implementation Roadmap
- Standalone Implementation Tech Memo
