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by AUVSI News 

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) in Singapore has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to enlist participation from the industry in regards to unmanned technologies that could be used to perform inspections of the country’s MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) and road tunnels.

Participants of the RFI should design and create trials in which UAS could conduct these inspections in the MRT tunnels, and during those trials, the UAS should be capable of providing a 360-degree video mapping of the tunnels, and the software should also be able to automatically detect defects based off the video taken, and tell the location of the defects.

Currently, inspections of the rail and road tunnels are done manually, and during those inspections, engineers check for things such as cracks or water leakage. Inspections of the road tunnels also cover voided slab spaces, where utility lines are located, and rainwater storage tanks.

While these inspections provide important information on the status of the tunnel structures, which leads to the necessary maintenance being done, the current way of carrying out these inspections is fairly laborious for workers, and in the case of rail tunnel inspections, these inspections can only be done during certain hours at night after passenger service ends.

So the LTA is looking for alternative ways to conduct these inspections.

“Through the RFI, LTA will evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of leveraging such technologies in the routine inspection of tunnels,” the LTA says in a press release.

Besides taking a burden off of engineers who currently conduct the inspections, unmanned systems would also allow engineers to focus their time on looking at data collected by UAS, so that they can make recommendations for improvements.

“The use of automated technologies such as UAS and UVs (unmanned vehicles) will not only improve the accuracy of inspections, but will also free up engineers’ time, enabling them to focus on the analysis of the data captured to recommend any necessary remedial measures,” says the LTA.

For the LTA, these latest trials will build off of other trials, which currently see UAS being deployed to take aerial photographs and videos to monitor work progress. If the latest trials are successful, these technologies could become an integral part of the LTA’s operations in the near future.

“These new trials will help to further current research developments and validate UAS and UV technologies under demanding operational conditions,” the LTA says. “If found effective, LTA aims to fully deploy these technologies for tunnel inspections in the next five years.”

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