Intelligent Bridge Inspection Using Remote Controlled Robot and Image Processing

In this paper, we discuss an intelligent bridge inspection system by using a Robot and IT technology which enables acquiring images of the bridge condition for managing the safety of its structure. The purpose of this study is composed of two parts: 1) the image acquisition of a bridge structure with the application of a vision-based robot, the name of the robot system is U-BIROS(Ubiquitous Bridge Inspection Robot System) which is remote controlled. 2) Development of digital image processing software for assessing condition of the bridge, and measuring the size of any crack captured in the images. The robot arm is designed to operate on the underside of superstructure during inspections, and equipped with vision devices (digital camera, lens, and lights). The domain of a superstructure has been divided into appropriate segments to facilitate the image acquiring task by making its total domain irrelevant to the procedure. The system’s software detects, measures the width and length of a crack semi-automatically, and also composes a drawing map of the whole area of the bridge from the crack’s data for a user’s convenience in determining the status of bridge. Through field experiments, the application of this inspection system with specialty software has proven to be much faster, safer, and reliable than the inspections carried out by the naked eyes in managing safety of the bridges.