Dive Brief:
- A robotic system that improves how bridges are inspected won the American Society of Civil Engineers 2025 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation, according to a Feb. 28 news release from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
- The Bridge Inspection Robot Deployment System, or BIRDs, was developed by a team led by Missouri S&T professor Genda Chen. It includes three drones that capture bridge data using infrared cameras, LiDAR and a crack probe.
- The award is presented annually and recognizes the contributions of organizations that advance the design and construction industry by introducing innovation into practice, according to the ASCE.
Dive Insight:
The system’s three drones work in concert to gather and analyze span data.
The first drone flies and can crawl on bridge girders to conduct inspections with infrared cameras and LiDAR. A second UAV carries and deploys a small bicycle-like crawler to scrutinize steel components with a microscope or crack probe, and a third uses a manipulator to perform maintenance tasks and defect testing on concrete.
Chen, who heads Rolla-based Missouri S&T’s Center for Intelligent Infrastructure, says next steps will be to continue testing potential areas for improvement with the technology and working with agencies and companies to pursue its wider-scale adoption, according to the release.
The BIRDS project began in 2019, and has received over $1 million in funding from the U.S. DOT’s University Transportation Centers Program and matching sources, per the school.
“Federal standards require regular bridge inspections, which can be a challenge due to the sheer number of bridges and their difficulty to access,” Chen said in the news release. “The inspection data we can retrieve from BIRDS will help tremendously with these issues, ensuring that structures are safe and well-maintained and ultimately lowering their life-cycle costs.”
Chen patented technology in a similar subject area last September. Chen’s invention can detect tiny movements in composite materials and prevent the structural issues that result.
Chen’s collaborators include:
- Donn Digamon, state bridge engineer for the Georgia DOT.
- Bryan Hartnagel, state bridge engineer for the Missouri DOT.
- Hung La, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno.
- Michael Premo, assistant chief structures engineer for the Nevada DOT.
- Yang Wang, professor of civil engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.
