Uncrewed Aerial Systems Applications for Bridge Inspections: Element-Level Bridge Data Collection (2024)

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NCHRP Research Report 1114 National Cooperative Highway Research Program Uncrewed Aerial Systems Applications for Bridge Inspections ELEMENT-LEVEL BRIDGE DATA COLLECTION 

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD 2024 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE* OFFICERS Chair: Carol A. Lewis, Professor, Transportation Studies, Texas Southern University, Houston Vice Chair: Leslie S. Richards, General Manager, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), Philadelphia Executive Director: Victoria Sheehan, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC MEMBERS Michael F. Ableson, CEO, Arrival Automotive–North America, Detroit, MI James F. Albaugh, President and CEO, The Boeing Company (retired), Scottsdale, AZ Carlos M. Braceras, Executive Director, Utah Department of Transportation, Salt Lake City Douglas C. Ceva, Vice President, Customer Lead Solutions, Prologis, Inc., Jupiter, FL Nancy Daubenberger, Commissioner of Transportation, Minnesota Department of Transportation, St. Paul Marie Therese Dominguez, Commissioner, New York State Department of Transportation, Albany Garrett Eucalitto, Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Transportation, Newington Chris T. Hendrickson, Hamerschlag University Professor of Engineering Emeritus, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA Randell Iwasaki, President and CEO, Iwasaki Consulting Services, Walnut Creek, CA Ashby Johnson, Executive Director, Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), Austin, TX Joel M. Jundt, Secretary of Transportation, South Dakota Department of Transportation, Pierre Hani S. Mahmassani, W.A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation; Director, Transportation Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Scott C. Marler, Director, Iowa Department of Transportation, Ames Ricardo Martinez, Adjunct Professor of Emergency Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Decatur, GA Michael R. McClellan, Vice President, Strategic Planning, Norfolk Southern Corporation, Norfolk, VA Russell McMurry, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Transportation, Atlanta Craig E. Philip, Research Professor and Director, VECTOR, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN Steward T.A. Pickett, Distinguished Senior Scientist, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY Susan A. Shaheen, Professor and Co-director, Transportation Sustainability Research Center, University of California, Berkeley Marc Williams, Executive Director, Texas Department of Transportation, Austin EX OFFICIO MEMBERS Michael R. Berube, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Sustainable Transportation, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC Shailen Bhatt, Administrator, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC Amit Bose, Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration, Washington, DC Tristan Brown, Deputy Administrator, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC Steven Cliff, Executive Officer, California Air Resources Board, Sacramento Rand Ghayad, Senior Vice President, Association of American Railroads, Washington, DC LeRoy Gishi, Chief, Division of Transportation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, Germantown, MD William H. Graham, Jr. (Major General, U.S. Army), Deputy Commanding General for Civil and Emergency Operations, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC Robert C. Hampshire, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC Sue Lawless, Acting Deputy Administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Washington, DC Niloo Parvashtiani, Engineer, Mobility Consultant Solutions, Iteris Inc., Fairfax, VA, and Chair, TRB Young Members Coordinating Council Sophie Shulman, Acting Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, DC Karl Simon, Director, Transportation and Climate Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC Paul P. Skoutelas, President and CEO, American Public Transportation Association, Washington, DC Polly Trottenberg, Deputy Secretary of Transportation and Acting Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC Jim Tymon, Executive Director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington, DC Veronica Vanterpool, Acting Administrator, Federal Transit Administration, Washington, DC * Membership as of May 2024. 

N AT I O N A L C O O P E R AT I V E H I G H W AY R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP RESEARCH REPORT 1114 Uncrewed Aerial Systems Applications for Bridge Inspections ELEMENT-LEVEL BRIDGE DATA COLLECTION Alicia McConnell AM3 Consultants Edwardsville, IL Matthew Hebdon Ryan Stevens The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX John Zuleger Michael Baker International Cincinnati, OH Jeffrey Sams Michael Baker International Louisville, KY Subscriber Categories Highways • Bridges and Other Structures • Maintenance and Preservation Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration 2024 

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY NCHRP RESEARCH REPORT 1114 RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed, and implementable research is the most Project 12-122 effective way to solve many problems facing state departments of ISSN 2572-3766 (Print) transportation (DOTs) administrators and engineers. Often, highway ISSN 2572-3774 (Online) problems are of local or regional interest and can best be studied by ISBN 978-0-309-70992-7 state DOTs individually or in cooperation with their state universities Library of Congress Control Number 2024939942 and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transporta- © 2024 by the National Academy of Sciences. National Academies of tion results in increasingly complex problems of wide interest to high- Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the graphical logo are trade- way authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated marks of the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. program of cooperative research. 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COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAMS CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP RESEARCH REPORT 1114 Waseem Dekelbab, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs, and Manager, National Cooperative Highway Research Program Ahmad Abu-Hawash, Senior Program Officer Sheila A. Moore, Program Associate Natalie Barnes, Director of Publications Heather DiAngelis, Associate Director of Publications NCHRP PROJECT 12-122 PANEL Field of Design—Area of Bridges Travis McDaniel, Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Madison, WI (Chair) Jesse Escamilla III, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Juneau, AK Evan Robinson, Vermont Agency of Transportation, Barre, VT Mark Struzinsky, New York State Department of Transportation, Albany, NY Jennifer Lynn Wells, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Oakdale, MN Kevin Weston, Arkansas Department of Transportation, Little Rock, AR Wael A. Zatar, Marshall University, Huntington, WV James Gray, FHWA Liaison Patricia Bush, AASHTO Liaison AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under NCHRP Project 12-122 by AM3 Consultants, Michael Baker International, and The University of Texas at Austin, with Michael Baker International as the primary contractor. Alicia McConnell, Principal and CEO of AM3 Consultants, was the Principal Investigator and a con- tributing author. Additional authors of this report are John Zuleger, Director of Infrastructure Technology at Michael Baker International and Co-principal Investigator; Matthew Hebdon, Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and Co-principal Investigator; Ryan Stevens, Research Engineer at The University of Texas at Austin; Jeffrey Sams, Senior Team Leader at Michael Baker International; Paul McGuinness, National Bridge Inspection Lead at Michael Baker International; Brian Gutzwiller, Chief Pilot at Michael Baker International; and James Waters, Chief Information Security Officer and Enterprise Architect at Michael Baker International. 

FOREWORD By Ahmad Abu-Hawash Staff Officer Transportation Research Board NCHRP Research Report 1114: Uncrewed Aerial Systems Applications for Bridge Inspections: Element-Level Bridge Data Collection presents strategies for using uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) for collecting element-level data during bridge inspections. The recommendations were developed based on extensive review of the state of practice regarding the use of UAS in bridge inspections to identify knowledge gaps followed by inspection of a wide range of bridge types using two families of UAS. The research findings will be used by bridge inspection professionals at state departments of transportation (DOTs). Interest in and use of UAS has increased in the past 10 years. One application of consid- erable interest to transportation agencies and their private sector partners is supplementing highway bridge inspections. They have shown particular interest in performing safety inspec- tions of bridge elements that are typically costly for bridge owners. By using UAS, the bridge superstructure and substructure can be assessed without requiring lanes of traffic to close or exposing inspectors to traffic. For bridges over rivers or other water bodies, UAS can collect data underneath or along the fascia without the need to close traffic lanes to use a snooper truck or similar system to inspect hard-to-access bridge elements. However, research has not yet focused on the ability of UAS technologies to support the col- lection of element-level bridge inspection data in accordance with the AASHTO Manual for Bridge Element Inspection (MBEI) methodology and format. Guidelines needed to be provided for state DOTs to select the appropriate UAS technologies for element-level bridge inspection. Under NCHRP Project 12-122, “Proposed AASHTO Guidelines for Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems Technologies for Element-Level Bridge Inspection,” Michael Baker International was asked to develop strategies to assist state DOTs with using UAS technologies to inspect and assess bridge element conditions. The research team recommended draft language regarding the use of UAS for collecting element-level data during bridge inspections for consideration by AASHTO. In addition to the final report published as NCHRP Research Report 1114, the materials listed below are available on the National Academies Press website (nap.nationalacademies.org) by searching for NCHRP Research Report 1114: Uncrewed Aerial Systems Applications for Bridge Inspections: Element-Level Bridge Data Collection: • Appendix A: Industry Survey • Appendix B: Defect Detectability Rankings • Standalone Implementation Roadmap • Standalone Implementation Tech Memo 



CONTENTS 1 Summary 3 Chapter 1 Background 3 1.1 Background 3 1.2 Research Objectives 3 1.3 Organization of the Report 4 Chapter 2 Research Approach 4 2.1 Literature Review 13 2.2 Knowledge Gaps 13 2.3 Selected Structures 22 2.4 UAS Form Factors 24 2.5 UAS Flight Operations 34 Chapter 3 Findings and Applications 34 3.1 Flight Operations 42 3.2 Time Comparison 45 3.3 Data Processing and Review 47 Chapter 4 Conclusions and Suggested Research 49 References 52 Appendices