In October, a North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (A&T) State University professor will help the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) on a project to examine how UAS can be used to inspect aging civil infrastructure.

Associate professor Dr. Ali Karimoddini will help NCDOT on the project entitled “Developing a Safe and Cost-effective Flight Control Methodology for a UAV-enabled Bridge Inspection.” Karimoddini will be assisted by fellow N.C. A&T professor, Dr. Abdollah Homaifar, and UNC Charlotte professor Dr. Navid Goudarzi.

N.C. A&T has two UAS laboratories on its campus, which are run by Karimoddini and his colleagues. The laboratories have attracted many autonomy students, as well as industry and government agencies. 

“We are one of few universities in the nation with these types of facilities,” Karimoddini says.

“Our facilities have enabled us to attract government agencies like NCDOT to investigate the development of drone technologies and their applications.”

To date, entities such as NCDOT have had to take extensive measures to conduct bridge inspections, such as closing traffic lanes, lowering inspectors on ropes, raising them on scaffolds or using specialized trucks or cranes. Traditional ways of inspecting bridges have proven to be costly and dangerous.

N.C. A&T notes that UAS are “nimble enough” to scan bridge spans and “nose into” hard-to-reach and hard-to-see crevices that can be difficult for humans to navigate. UAS take high-resolution images and/or video as they hover close to aging trusses, piers, and other structures, providing inspectors with the ability to collect and analyze data from the ground.

This information is assembled into 3-D models using special software, and can be examined by engineers on computers.