More than 54,000 of the 612,677 bridges in the U.S. have at least one key element that is in poor or worse condition, according to a 2018 bridge deficiency report conducted by the Federal Highway Administration.
To address the critical need to manage aging infrastructure in the U.S., researchers are turning to robotic drones.
Researchers from the Michigan Tech Research Institute are using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) or drones to view difficult-to-reach locations, compile large sets of data and explore possible defects using a 3D application …
https://www.rdmag.com/article/2018/12/drones-3d-app-could-improve-inspections-aging-bridges
R&D Magazine | Dec. 19, 2018