Unmanned Vehicles for Lightning Protection System Inspection and Maintenance

Mascareñas, David; Liao, Ashlee; Morales, John; Berl, Frederick; Hailey, Shawn; Milligan, Jamie R.; Vigil, R. Dennis; Smith, Adam Leon; Wrinkle, Robert Van

doi:10.12783/shm2019/32343

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Due to their agility, UAS have found their use in several applications such as reconnaissance and disaster management [ 24 ], oil spill surveillance and detection [ 25 ], soil erosion monitoring [ 26 ], forest ecosystem and biodiversity monitoring [ 27 ], and deforestation detection [ 28 ]. Researchers have used UAS-based systems for bridge SHM in recent years [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Novel applications of UAS included non-destructive testing of concrete by tap testing it with a hammer mounted UAS [ 34 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Transverse Displacements Using Unmanned Aerial Systems Laser Doppler Vibrometer (UAS-LDV): Development and Field Validation

Garg

Nasimi

Ozdagli

et al. 2020

Sensors

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Measurement of bridge displacements is important for ensuring the safe operation of railway bridges. Traditionally, contact sensors such as Linear Variable Displacement Transducers (LVDT) and accelerometers have been used to measure the displacement of the railway bridges. However, these sensors need significant effort in installation and maintenance. Therefore, railroad management agencies are interested in new means to measure bridge displacements. This research focuses on mounting Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) on an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) to enable contact-free transverse dynamic displacement of railroad bridges. Researchers conducted three field tests by flying the Unmanned Aerial Systems Laser Doppler Vibrometer (UAS-LDV) 1.5 m away from the ground and measured the displacement of a moving target at various distances. The accuracy of the UAS-LDV measurements was compared to the Linear Variable Differential Transducer (LVDT) measurements. The results of the three field tests showed that the proposed system could measure non-contact, reference-free dynamic displacement with an average peak and root mean square (RMS) error for the three experiments of 10% and 8% compared to LVDT, respectively. Such errors are acceptable for field measurements in railroads, as the interest prior to bridge monitoring implementation of a new approach is to demonstrate similar success for different flights, as reported in the three results. This study also identified barriers for industrial adoption of this technology and proposed operational development practices for both technical and cost-effective implementation.

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