The research of the platform for bridge visual inspection based on quad -rotor aircraft

Abstract

The visual inspection is an important measure and one of the basic steps to discover the structural problems of bridges. However, it is necessary to be close to the object in order to discover a crack less than 0.2 mm in a building reaching a length of hundreds of meters or dozens of kilometers. Modern bridges have various structures and their surroundings are complex so it is difficult to inspect visually. Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles can fly in various postures such as hovering, forwarding, crabbing, and backing. Because they have a good vision and the ability to approach closely to buildings, researchers have paid much attention to them. This paper discusses the problem of bridge visual inspection and clarifies why the bridge visual inspection with quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles has an extensive application prospect. At the same time, this paper also explores how to improve quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles to fit it for bridge visual inspection and do some preliminary indoor experiments to test the feasibility. From the results of these experiments, quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles are suitable for the bridge visual inspection perfectly. The end of the paper summarizes the challenges of using quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles in the bridge visual inspection.