• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.77-84
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• 2010

This paper proposes a bridge inspection system using a robot to manage the safety status of bridges. A conventional bridge inspection has a lot of problems because inspection is conducted manually by human. As an alternative, we are to develop a robot system having machine vision and this robot system is mounted on an end linkage of specially designed car having seven DOF (Degrees Of Freedom) to inspect cracks beneath bridge. This system is able to check a status of the bridge and record its changes every other year. As a result, the developed robot system offers us the inspection result of quality and reliability about the bridge inspection status. Also, we have tested the effectiveness of the suggested system through outdoor experiments.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.90-95
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• 2007

Conventional bridge inspection involves the physical positioning of an inspector by the hydraulic telescoping boom of a "snooper truck" thereby providing visual access to bridge components. The process is time consuming, hazardous, and may be affected by lighting conditions, Therefore, it is of great interest that an automated and/or teleoperated inspection robot be developed to replace the manual inspection procedure. This paper describes the advanced bridge inspection robot system under development and other related activities currently undergoing at the Bridge Inspection Robot Development Interface (BIRDI). BIRDI is a research consortium with its home in the Department of Civil and Environmental System Engineering at Hanyang University at Ansan. Its primary goal is to develop advanced robot systems for bridge inspection and monitoring for immediate field application and commercialization. The research program includes research areas such as advanced inspection robot and motion control system, sensing technologies for monitoring and assessment, and integrated system for bridge maintenance. The center embraces 12 institutions, which consist of 7 universities, 2 research institutes, and 3 private enterprises. Research projects are cross-disciplinary and include experts from structural engineering, mechanical engineering, electronic and control engineering. This research project will contribute to advancement of infrastructure maintenance technology, enhancement of construction industry competitiveness, and promotion of national capacity for technology innovation.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.29-42
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• 2006

In this study, a novel education system for inspection of concrete bridges is presented. The new education approach uses virtual reality (VR) and three-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) in training engineers to become bridge inspection specialists. The slow time-dependent deterioration of concrete bridges can be reproduced on the computer screen in any chosen time frame, thus providing the trainees with illustrative and educative insight into the deterioration problem. In the proposed VR/3DCG approach a three-dimensional model of concrete bridge, including surfaces, viewpoints and walkthrough paths is created. With the help of this virtual bridge model, an experienced bridge inspection specialist teaches the different deterioration phenomena of concrete bridges to the trainees. The new system was tested, and the inspection results from the case bridge showed that in comparison with the traditional Japanese bridge inspection education system, the new system gives better results. In addition to the improvement of quality of bridge inspections, the new VR/3DCG system-based education brings along some other, more intangible benefits.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2000.10b
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• pp.1285-1290
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• 2000

The inspection of bridge condition is of extreme importance. Current inspection codes for bridge inspection are vague and uncertain. So, the results are highly subjective and different from person to person and even day to day for a given person. To circumvent possible inconsistencies in inspection and rating of bridge components, the revised inspection guidelines have been proposed.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.283-300
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• 2015

Visual condition inspections remain paramount to assessing the current deterioration status of a bridge and assigning remediation or maintenance tasks so as to ensure the ongoing serviceability of the structure. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing backlog of maintenance activities. Existing research reveals that this is attributable to the labour-intensive, subjective and disruptive nature of the current bridge inspection method. Current processes ultimately require lane closures, traffic guidance schemes and inspection equipment. This not only increases the whole-of-life costs of the bridge, but also increases the risk to the travelling public as issues affecting the structural integrity may go unaddressed. As a tool for bridge condition inspections, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or, drones, offer considerable potential, allowing a bridge to be visually assessed without the need for inspectors to walk across the deck or utilise under-bridge inspection units. With current inspection processes placing additional strain on the existing bridge maintenance resources, the technology has the potential to significantly reduce the overall inspection costs and disruption caused to the travelling public. In addition to this, the use of automated aerial image capture enables engineers to better understand a situation through the 3D spatial context offered by UAV systems. However, the use of UAV for bridge inspection involves a number of critical issues to be resolved, including stability and accuracy of control, and safety to people. SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) is a technique that could be used by a UAV to build a map of the bridge underneath, while simultaneously determining its location on the constructed map. While there are considerable economic and risk-related benefits created through introducing entirely new ways of inspecting bridges and visualising information, there also remain hindrances to the wider deployment of UAVs. This study is to provide a context for use of UAVs for conducting visual bridge inspections, in addition to addressing the obstacles that are required to be overcome in order for the technology to be integrated into current practice.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.411-417
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• 2020

To utilize building information modeling (BIM) technology at the bridge maintenance stage, it is necessary to integrate large quantities of bridge inspection and model data for object-oriented information management. This research aims to establish the benefits of utilizing the extended industry foundation class (IFC)-BIM and ontology for bridge inspection information management. The IFC entities were extended to represent the bridge objects, and a method of generating the extended IFC-based information model was proposed. The bridge inspection ontology was also developed by extraction and classification of inspection concepts from the AASHTO standard. The classified concepts and their relationships were mapped to the ontology based on the semantic triples approach. Finally, the extended IFC-based BIM model was integrated with the ontology for bridge inspection data management. The effectiveness of the proposed framework for bridge inspection information management by integration of the extended IFC-BIM and ontology was tested and verified by extracting bridge inspection data via the SPARQL query.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.285-286
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• 2007

This paper presents a robust controller in order to handle the guide rail vibrations of Bridge Inspection System. While a Bridge Inspection Robot moves on guide rails with vibration by weight occurs. Therefore, Guide rail as structure like cantilever beam appears vibration by weight of Bridge Inspection Robot. The Z axis of Bridge Inspection Robot operates with Scissors structure. Bridge Inspection Robot is used 'PID Controller based on Sliding Mode control' for position control with Z axis. At the result of, this paper is applied to simulation about position control regarding vibration to occur with Z axis.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.111-118
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• 2002

Currently, the inspection of bridges is conduced for the parts or elements of a bridges and the results of inspection are depicted for those local elements. Therefore, the representative rating of a bridge as a whole bridge system is not presented. The purpose of the present study is to purpose a reasonable method which can yield realistic representative rating for an actual bridge. The purpose method consists of two steps, i.e, visual inspection step and safety assessment step. The importance of members is considered by introducing the weighting factors and the number of spans is also considered to obtain the representative rating of a whole bridge system. The purpose method may be efficiently used to calculate the realistic representative rating bridge structures.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.188-193
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• 2008

According to introduce KTX in Korea, rail-road bridge section of KTX was increased approximately 50% of the total length. Bridge is required periodic inspection and check to prevent accident and hazard because various damage which have effects on traffic and replacement of damaged parts is difficult. Specifically, the train as large-scale transportation because accidents led to great damage, preventing these accidents are critical. Well-organized management and maintenance systems are required to prevent the accidents. In the case of roadway bridge, bridge inspection vehicle is used to deploy inspectors in roadway bridge. However, this method requires a lot of time and efforts, and inspectors are exposed to potential hazard. Also, surrounding environment like poor lighting system or electric wire could harm the inspector while repairing. Due to this reason, automatic repairing and inspecting system have been introduced to replace the old methods. Management system of the railroad bridge track for trains uses various advanced equipments, but whereas roadway bridge management system is lacking these efforts. As a result of that, this study looks over the existing management method. and review the method to apply the Bridge Inspection Robot in railroad bridge. Moreover, this study suggests future management technology using inspection robot.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.521-539
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• 2011

Jilin highway concrete bridge is located in the center of Jilin City, which is positioned in the middle part in Jilin Province in the east north of China. This bridge crosses the Songhua River and connects the north and the south of Jilin City. The main purpose of damages inspection of the bridge components is to ensure the safety of a bridge and to identify any maintenance, repair, or strengthening which that need to be carried out. The damages that occur in reinforced concrete bridges include different types of cracks, scalling and spalling of concrete, corrosion of steel reinforcement, deformation, excessive deflection, and stain. The main objectives of this study are to inspect the appearance of Jilin highway concrete bridge and describe all the damages in the bridge structural members, and to evaluate the structural performance of the bridge structure under dead and live loads. The tests adopted in this study are: (a) the depth of concrete carbonation test, (b) compressive strength of concrete test, (c) corrosion of steel test, (d) static load test, and (e) dynamic load test. According to the damages inspection of the bridge structure appearance, most components of the bridge are in good conditions with the exception arch waves, spandrel arch, deck pavement of new arch bridge, and corbel of simply supported bridge which suffer from serious damages. Load tests results show that the deflection, strain, and cracks development satisfy the requirements of the standards.