Routine inspections for critical infrastructures such as bridges are required in most jurisdictions worldwide. Such routine inspections are largely visual in nature, which are qualitative, subjective, and not repeatable. Although robotic infrastructure inspections address such limitations, they cannot replace the superior ability of experts to make decisions in complex situations, thus making human-robot interaction systems a promising technology. This study presents a novel gaze-based human-robot interaction system, designed to augment the visual inspection performance through mixed reality. Through holograms from a mixed reality device, gaze can be utilized effectively to estimate the properties of the defect in real-time. Additionally, inspectors can monitor the inspection progress online, which enhances the speed of the entire inspection process. Limited controlled experiments demonstrate its effectiveness across various users and defect types. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the real-time application of eye gaze in civil infrastructure inspections.
This article addresses the problem of Cooperative Coverage Path Planning (C-CPP) for the inspection of complex infrastructures (offline 3D reconstruction) by utilizing multiple Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs). The proposed scheme, based on a priori 3D model of the infrastructure under inspection, is able to generate multiple paths for UAVs in order to achieve a complete cooperative coverage in a short time. Initially the infrastructure under inspection is being sliced by horizontal planes, which has the capability of recognizing the branches of the structure and these branches will be hand…
Within this paper, the problem of 3D structural inspection path planning for distributed infrastructure using aerial robots that are subject to time constraints is addressed. The proposed algorithm handles varying spatial properties of the infrastructure facilities, accounts for their different importance and exploration function and computes an overall inspection path of high inspection reward while respecting the robot endurance or mission time constraints as well as the vehicle dynamics and sensor limitations. To achieve its goal, it employs an iterative, 3-step optimization strategy at eac…
Queensland University of Technology（昆士兰科技大学）；Australian Centre for Robotic Vision（澳大利亚机器人视觉中心）
This paper presents the design and implementation of an assisted control technology for a small multirotor platform for aerial inspection of fixed energy infrastructure. Sensor placement is supported by a theoretical analysis of expected sensor performance and constrained platform behaviour to speed up implementation. The optical sensors provide relative position information between the platform and the asset, which enables human operator inputs to be autonomously adjusted to ensure safe separation. The assisted control approach is designed to reduced operator workload during close proximity i…
GATSBI: An Online GTSP-Based Algorithm for Targeted Surface Bridge Inspection and Defect Detection
National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；Rice University（莱斯大学）；Colorado State University（科罗拉多州立大学）；University of Colorado（科罗拉多大学）；National Research Institute for Metals（国立金属材料研究所）
This article presents a novel framework for performing visual inspection around 3D infrastructures, by establishing a team of fully autonomous Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) with robust localization, planning and perception capabilities. The proposed aerial inspection system reaches high level of autonomy on a large scale, while pushing to the boundaries the real life deployment of aerial robotics. In the presented approach, the MAVs deployed for the inspection of the structure rely only on their onboard computer and sensory systems. The developed framework envisions a modular system, combining …
University of Seville（塞维利亚大学）；Czech Technical University in Prague（捷克技术大学布拉格分校）
A software architecture aimed at coordinating a team of heterogeneous aerial vehicles for inspection and maintenance operations in high-voltage power line scenarios is presented in this paper. A hierarchical approach deals with high-level tasks by planning and executing complex missions requiring vehicles to support human operators. A resource-constrained problem allows distributing tasks among the team taking into account vehicles' capabilities and battery constraints. Besides, Behavior Trees (BTs) are in charge of mission execution, triggering replanning operations in case of unforeseen even…
Developing Smart MAVs for Autonomous Inspection in GPS-denied Constructions
College of Engineering, South China Agriculture University（华南农业大学工程学院）；College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics（南京航空航天大学民航学院）；College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University（深圳大学机电与控制工程学院）
The recent adoption of the Robot Operating System (ROS) as a software standard in robotics has contributed to novel solutions for several problems on the area. One such problem is known as Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) with autonomous navigation, for which a number of algorithms from different classes are available as ROS packages ready to be used on any compatible robot. Many anticipated applications of autonomous mobile robots require for them to navigate in diverse complex environments without support from exterior infrastructures. To perform this on-board navigation, the rob…
UAS-based Automated Structural Inspection Path Planning via Visual Data Analytics and Optimization
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；Zhejiang University - University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Institute（浙江大学伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳香槟校区联合学院）
This paper presents and validates active interaction force control and planning for fully actuated and omnidirectional aerial manipulation platforms, with the goal of aerial contact inspection in unstructured environments. We present a variable axis-selective impedance control which integrates direct force control for intentional interaction, using feedback from an on-board force sensor. The control approach aims to reject disturbances in free flight, while handling unintentional interaction, and actively controlling desired interaction forces. A fully actuated and omnidirectional tilt-rotor a…
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague（布拉格捷克技术大学电气工程学院）；University of Sannio（萨尼奥大学）；ENEA（意大利国家新技术、能源与环境署）
Inspection of power line infrastructures must be periodically conducted by electric companies in order to ensure reliable electric power distribution. Research efforts are focused on automating the power line inspection process by looking for strategies that satisfy different requirements expressed in terms of potential damage and faults detection. This problem comes up with the need of safe planning and control techniques for autonomous robots to perform visual inspection tasks. Such an application becomes even more interesting and of critical importance when considering a multi-robot extensi…
University of Rijeka（里耶卡大学）；University of Southern Denmark（南丹麦大学）
The application of autonomous UAVs to infrastructure inspection tasks provides benefits in terms of operation time reduction, safety, and cost-effectiveness. This paper presents trajectory planning for three-dimensional autonomous multi-UAV volume coverage and visual inspection of infrastructure based on the Heat Equation Driven Area Coverage (HEDAC) algorithm. The method generates trajectories using a potential field and implements distance fields to prevent collisions and to determine UAVs' camera orientation. It successfully achieves coverage during the visual inspection of complex structur…
This paper presents an omnidirectional aerial manipulation platform for robust and responsive interaction with unstructured environments, toward the goal of contact-based inspection. The fully actuated tilt-rotor aerial system is equipped with a rigidly mounted end-effector, and is able to exert a 6 degree of freedom force and torque, decoupling the system's translational and rotational dynamics, and enabling precise interaction with the environment while maintaining stability. An impedance controller with selective apparent inertia is formulated to permit compliance in certain degrees of free…
We study the problem of infrastructure inspection using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in box girder bridge environments. We consider a scenario where the UAV needs to fully inspect box girder bridges and localize along the bridge surface when standard methods like GPS and optical flow are denied. Our method for overcoming the difficulties of box girder bridges consist of creating local navigation routines, a supervisor, and a planner. The local navigation routines use two 2D Lidars for girder and column flight. For switching between local navigation routines we implement a supervisor which …
Autonomous UAV Pipeline Near-proximity Inspection via Disturbance-Aware Predictive Visual Servoing
School of Automation, Key Laboratory of Measurement and Control of CSE, Ministry of Education, Southeast University（自动化学院、CSE测量与控制重点实验室、教育部、东南大学）；Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University（航空与汽车工程系、罗汉布大学）；Research Centre for Low Altitude Economy and the Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University（低空经济研究中心和航空与航空工程系、香港理工大学）
Nara Institute of Science and Technology（奈良先端科学技术大学院大学）；Tokai University（东海大学）
Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have drawn much attention to underwater tasks, such as the inspection and maintenance of infrastructure. The workload of ROV operators tends to be high, even for the skilled ones. Therefore, assistance methods for the operators are desired. This study focuses on a task in which a human operator controls an underwater robot to follow a certain path while visually inspecting objects in the vicinity of the path. In such a task, it is desirable to realize the speed of trajectory control manually because the visual inspection is performed by a human operator. Howev…
CNN-Based Camera Pose Estimation and Localisation of Scan Images for Aircraft Visual Inspection
Pillar of Engineering Product Development（工程产品发展中心）；Singapore University of Technology and Design（新加坡科技设计大学）；ST Engineering Aerospace Ltd.（ST工程航空航天有限公司）
Large-Scale Tunnel Air-Ground Collaboration With FLISP: Fast LiDAR-IMU Synchronized Path Planner
Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Tongji University（同济大学上海自主智能无人系统科学中心）；State Key Laboratory of Autonomous Intelligent Unmanned Systems, Tongji University（同济大学自主智能无人系统全国重点实验室）；College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University（同济大学电子与信息工程学院）
Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University（普渡大学普渡理工学院）；School of Engineering Technology, Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University（普渡大学普渡理工学院工程技术学院）；Purdue University（普渡大学）
Inspection for structural properties (surface stiffness and coefficient of restitution) is crucial for understanding and performing aerial manipulations in unknown environments, with little to no prior knowledge on their state. Inspection-on-the-fly is the uncanny ability of humans to infer states during manipulation, reducing the necessity to perform inspection and manipulation separately. This paper presents an infrastructure for inspection-on-the-fly method for aerial manipulators using hybrid physical interaction control. With the proposed method, structural properties (surface stiffness a…
Bayesian Learning for the Robust Verification of Autonomous Robots
University of Warwick（华威大学）；University of York（约克大学）；Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica（荷兰国家数学与计算机科学研究所）；Eindhoven University of Technology（埃因霍温理工大学）；University of Glasgow（格拉斯哥大学）
In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the formation of multiple UAVs used in vision-based inspection of infrastructure. A path planning algorithm is first developed by using a variant of the particle swarm optimisation, named theta-PSO, to generate a feasible path for the overall formation configuration taken into account the constraints for visual inspection. Here, we introduced a cost function that includes various constraints on flight safety and visual inspection. A reconfigurable topology is then added based on the use of intermediate waypoints to allow the formation to avoid collisi…
Methods for the Segmentation of Reticular Structures Using 3D LiDAR Data: A Comparative Evaluation
Engineering Research Institute of Elche (I3E)（埃尔切工程研究所 (I3E)）；Valencian Graduate School and Research Network of Artificial Intelligence (ValgrAI)（瓦伦西亚人工智能研究生院与研究网络 (ValgrAI)）
