Measurement method and recent progress of vision-based deflection measurement of bridges: a technical review

Abstract

The deflection that can reflect the vertical stiffness of a bridge plays an important role in the structural evaluation and health monitoring of bridges. In the past 20 years, the bridge deflection measurement methods based on computer vision and photogrammetry have been gradually applied to the field measurement due to the advantages of noncontact measurement, simple experimental setup, and easy installation. The technical research progress of vision-based bridge deflection measurement is reported from four aspects: basic principles, measurement methods, influencing factors, and applications. Basic principles mainly include camera calibration, three-dimensional (3D) stereo vision, photogrammetry, feature detection, and matching. For measurement methods, the single-camera two-dimensional measurement, the dual-camera 3D measurement, the quasistatic measurement based on photogrammetry, the multipoint dynamic measurement based on the displacement-relay videometrics and the deflection measurement based on UAV platform are introduced, respectively. In the section of influencing factors, this part summarizes the work of many researchers on the effects of camera imaging factors, calibration factors, algorithm factors, and environmental factors on measurement results. The field measurement results at different measurement distances and measurement accuracy based on these are presented in terms of applications. Finally, the future development trends of vision-based bridge deflection measurement are expected.