A study on the UAV image-based efficiency improvement of bridge maintenance and inspection

This study reviewed efficient bridge management using UAVs (Unmanned Arial Vehicles) that have much potential for facility maintenance such as the possibility of regular inspection on inaccessible parts of bridges, easy operation regardless of the operators' specialty, and economic maintenance. For this study, images were obtained from a UAV and a 3D viewer was created with them for the work efficiency of bridge inspectors, so that the inspectors can see and check inaccessible areas regardless of inspector's location. It compared various existing inspection methods for problems such as cracks, efflorescence and leakage with the UAV inspection method to analyze the work efficiency as well as sustainable economic benefit. The main purpose of this study was to figure out whether the proposed inspection using the images from the UAV and 3D viewer can replace the existing inspection methods that cannot be performed easily and analyze the economic benefit of the new method. The study result showed that the UAV image-based bridge maintenance and inspection is possible even though it was found inefficient when images of uneven quality were provided depending on operation of the UAV. Therefore, a UAV operation manual that can help generate images of even quality must be produced.