This practical session is dedicated to real-world case studies demonstrating the utilization of UAVs in infrastructure development projects. Industry experts will share their practical experiences and insights, shedding light on the benefits and challenges of integrating UAV technology into infrastructure inspection and maintenance workflows. Each presenter will deliver a concise but detailed presentation, offering an authentic perspective on their projects and the pivotal role UAVs played in achieving project goals. From inspecting inaccessible areas to monitoring repair progress, these case studies provide valuable insights and inspiration for leveraging UAVs in infrastructure development and repair.
The View from Above…and Below: UAV a.k.a Drone Data Collection in the City of Houston (COH)
Since 2020, the City of Houston has been exploring unique solutions by utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for data collection service efficiencies. To date, Houston has successfully utilized this technology for mapping and assessing off-road channels, green space mowing areas, stormwater and wastewater treatment facilities, and bridges. Specifically, off-road drainage channels are flown to determine their condition and to locate potential hazards that may impede proper stormwater flow, water treatment facilities are flown multiple times to track changes over time, and bridge visual assessments are conducted utilizing a UAV with a spotlight attached to better illuminate potential bridge deficiencies below the road surface deck. The bridge visual assessment provides a close-up and detailed video of bridge elements which allows for a close-up and detailed review by a Bridge Engineer which saves a tremendous amount of time and man-hours as sometimes these areas are difficult to access over water or high up from the ground. The UAV is available under Emergency Operations to fly areas that might be difficult for personnel to access such as flooded roadway approaches to bridges. During the 1st couple years of the UAV bridge effort approximately 25 bridges were flown. The 1st year included the 2 longest bridges in the COH inventory. Regarding these 2 long bridges that are approximately over 4,000-feet long each and over the San Jacinto River the UAVs were specifically deployed to investigate visually if the neoprene bridge beam pads were still in-place or walking out which could potentially lead to the bridge beams landing on the bents and rubbing concrete to concrete, which has already happened and been repaired. Similarly, several off-road drainage channels have been inspected utilizing UAVs providing personnel with detailed asset condition information that supports status ratings and subsequent maintenance & rehabilitation prioritization. These channels are normally difficult to access and/or require extensive physical and time resources to inspect. Other City departments such as Houston Police and Fire have utilized UAV technology for years in various applications including but not limited to facility damage assessments and crime-prone area surveillance. This presentation will detail lessons learned surrounding UAV data collection, Cloud storage, methods used by other departments, unique solutions and asset rating criteria developed, and mechanisms used to procure this method as well as potential alternatives for structuring in-house UAV operations teams.
Raj Shah and Steve Loo, City of Houston
Drones and IoT Sensors: Building a Digital Twin for a Coastal Landslide Repair
This case study will demonstrate the innovative combination of high-resolution drone imagery, survey control, and near-real time inclinometer data to create a digital twin that was used to inform decision making at a critical coastal landslide repair project. In September 2021, significant earth movement on a coastal hillside near San Clemente, California resulted in the suspension of passenger and freight rail traffic along a key railway section between Oceanside and San Clemente. Additionally, city officials red-tagged two homes in the adjacent housing development, and yellow-tagged two more. In response, 20,000 tons of riprap was deposited on the ocean side of the tracks to protect the railway and to serve as a counterweight to slow bluff movement. After Hurricane Kay in September 2022, additional landslide movement necessitated emergency approvals for a longer-term site repair project – installation of large metal anchors along the 700 feet of slope to prevent it from pushing the railroad track further toward the water. HDR provided engineering support services for the emergency project. HDR’s Data Acquisition team developed a digital twin of the project site by combining existing survey control points and high-resolution imagery captured with a WingtraOne Gen II drone outfitted with a prototype 61-megapixel camera. Survey and flight operations were completed in a timeframe of less than two hours. In addition to achieving FAA and DOD approvals to conduct the flights, working near and within the impacted residential community required close collaboration with the neighborhood. The site’s proximity to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and a visit by President Biden to nearby San Diego on the day of the flights added additional security considerations as well. Inclinometers installed in October 2021 and November 2022 provided near-real-time data that was transmitted to the Bentley’s iTwin platform for consumption within the digital twin – one of the first full implementations for an active project using this product. This allowed the project team and owner’s personnel to log in, select a specific location within the project site and see changes in movement to a tenth of an inch at various depths within the context of the interactive model. Access to this data was actively monitored (along with configured threshold alerts) to inform key construction activities as they occurred. It also aided the decision to re-open the two yellow-tagged residences and resume regular passenger rail service along the route following completion of 60% of the anchor installation work – 3-4 weeks earlier than expected – which saved several-hundred-thousand dollars in interim passenger bus service and lost passenger rail revenue.
Carlos Femmer, HDR
Revolutionizing Drone Bridge Inspection with Cloud-Powered AI Delamination Detection
Alynix is releasing to the Transportation infrastructure marketplace an “Early Adopter” version of their solution-as-a-service called “Decker” this Spring 2024. Decker features an advanced mobile infrastructure mapping system that includes a UAS (drone/dock) that can be placed near a bridge where it is pre-programmed to automatically collect thermal scans of concrete bridge decks in a time series from dawn until dusk. The thermal and color bridge deck scans are uploaded in near-real time into the Cloud where the Decker software performs advanced AI methods to help identify and statistically map areas of potential delamination. The Decker API is able to report the percent delamination per FHWA NBIS compliance requirements to the DOT’s asset management software. Alynix is partnering with the UAS Program Leader of a consortium of county road and bridge asset owners in Washington State to do extensive real world bridge deck scanning and detailed evaluation of the Decker solution in the spring and summer of 2024. This collaborative presentation will include both the asset owner representative who is the Statewide UAS Program Leader and the Decker Product Team.
Matthew Krusemark, Alynix
Macro vs Micro Aerial Photogrammetry and LiDAR for DOT Projects
Aerial photogrammetry and LiDAR have proven their value in land surveying on large scale projects becasue they can collect a large area in a shorter time. But DOTs usually don’t think about aerial acquisition on non-corridor and smaller projects, a carryover thought process from the fixed wing application where cost of deployment had to compensate for project size. UAV’s portability and cost-efficient deployment has changed how land surveyors collect data for engineering grade projects, whatever the scope size. This presentation will examine a variety of marco and micro DOT real-world projects using photogrammetry and LiDAR that provided added value fro the UAV bird eye acquisition for safer, more complete and budget friendly survey data. Examples will highlight rail, bridges, watermain utilities, highway, and unstable topography.
Don Seals, TREKK Design Group, LLC
