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InnovBot - Bridge and Dam
Numerous human-made infrastructure (buildings, bridges, dams, highways, tunnels, etc.) in USA and around the world are reaching their life expectancy, and thus have strong needs for routine inspection and maintenance to ensure sustainability. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has compiled regular “report cards” on the state of U.S. infrastructure since the 1980s. In its 2017 report, the ASCE found that the nation’s infrastructure averaged a “D+,” meaning that conditions were “mostly below standard,” exhibiting “significant deterioration,” with a “strong risk of failure.” It is estimated that there is a total “infrastructure gap” of more than $2 trillion needed by 2025 [Infrastructure2020]. .
According to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) report in 2020, of the 617,000 bridges in the United States about 46,000 were in poor condition. This represents about 7.5% of all bridges. FHWA also estimated that eliminating the backlog in 20 years would require an investment of $24.6 billion annually [Bridge2020]. Likewise, as per data from 2017 ASCE report card, the average age of the 90,580 dams in USA is 56 years, and nearly 15,500 (17%) dams are identified as high-hazard potential. It is estimated that it will require an investment of nearly $45 billion to repair aging, yet critical, high-hazard potential dams.
Problem Statements
Our major focus in infrasctructure insepction is to automate the data acquisition process and reduce the harzadous work involved. We didn't do infrasctructure inspection by ourselves. we offer climbling robot based data acquisition service, which help inspection company to collect data in a smart way.
Robotic inspection of infrastructure is an emerging market with minimal participants currently in the field. The driving forces for robotic inspection include: 1) the aged civil infrastructure in USA; 2) shortage of inspectors; and 3) government regulations and investment. Department of Transportation (DOT) has established a University Transportation Center for Inspecting and Preserving Infrastructure through Robotic Exploration (INSPIRE) in 2017. INSPIRE Center is currently embarking on an unprecedented mission to transform the current visual inspection practice of bridges to a future data driven practice based on robotic platforms, including mobile manipulating UAVs, magnet-based robots for steel bridge inspections and CCNY’s wall-climbing robots for concrete bridge inspections. CCNY is one of the six major consortium members of the INSPIRE Center.
The use of InnovBot’s robotic inspection tool will eliminate the time, hassle and cost to layout gridlines on flat terrain, and make it possible to automatically inspect difficult-to-access locations with minimum human intervention. It will allow the inspection tasks to be performed at least 10 times faster, at a lower cost and increase safety by avoiding costly and dangerous scaffolds. The proposed R&D will advance the state-of-the-art robotic technology and produce climbing machines, vision-based accurate positioning and 3D GPR imaging software as a holistic solution to revolutionize the way the GPR data is collected, interpreted and visualized.
We will also entend our robotic data acquisition to other specialty scenario based on client needs. Customize solution might be needed. Application scenatio include but not limit to following.
Submerge parts
Submerge part of bridge, dam etc. Additional sensor might be needed
Underground facilities
Tunnel, Pipeline, Subway or underground system
Underwater or Submarine
Facilities underwater or in submarine enviroment