The use of UAVs for civil engineering infrastructures

Abstract

Civil Infrastructures regardless sector they belong to as hydraulic (dams, pipelines), transport (bridges, roadways) or building represent a fundamental element for our lives quality and improvements then considering the continuous technological progress, existing infrastructures have to be adjusted in order to cohabit with innovations or to be complementary to new constructions. For these reasons it is important to guarantee their complete efficiency with correct maintenance operations but especially monitoring ones so to forecast imminent damages, considering that during its life cycle a generic infrastructure is subjected to dynamic and various loads, deterioration of materials and atmospheric agents that can compromise its functionality. Such aspects result fundamental considering that in many developed countries as Europe most of existing bridges were realized in world war two decades, then for example in USA 70% of roads and bridges was realized before 1930s while in Japan majority of bridges was built in 1970s. Nowadays technologies used for monitoring interventions or inspections are several but most of them are intrusive and require the need of certified human operators, these aspects create a significant safe risk and cost increase both for operators payment and equipment, then the service that an infrastructure has to provide is compromised as for example traffic interruption for bridges. In last decades to solve critical issues due to operators cost and safety or services interruption, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) commonly known as drones were used for monitoring operations, such systems have several advantages mostly because they are not intrusive and do not require a human operator. For these reasons especially due to cost reductions, UAVs for civil engineering infrastructure are expected to reach €40 billion market worth in next decade.