On August 24, the Metropolitan Expressway Company (Metropolitan Expressway) opened to the press its latest technology for use in the inspection and maintenance of its facilities.
Two new technologies that were unveiled were robots for truss bridge inspection, drones for bridge inspection, and an omni-directional camera elevation inspection system for on-site inspection, and i-DREAM, Metropolitan Highway’s unique maintenance management system that centralizes and manages a vast amount of data related to inspection and repair. These technologies are already in the trial stage, but the company plans to organize further additional countermeasure proposals and announce a summary plan by the end of this year.
The Arakawa Wangan Bridge on the Metropolitan Expressway Bayshore Route, which was opened for public use in January 1978 (girder installation was completed in April 1975), was the site of the exhibition, where the current state of damage to the 47-year-old steel bridge, the condition of the sections that have been repaired, and the inspection scene using new technology were shown. In the case of the Arakawa Bay Bridge, inspections have included patrol inspections, walking inspections on the highway, rope access inspections, visual inspections using binoculars and telephoto cameras from inspection walkways installed on the bridge, and image inspections using high-definition cameras from underneath the elevated structure. Among steel bridges, which account for approximately 63% of the total 327 km of the Metropolitan Expressway, many have truss structures, so the scaffolding required for this work tends to be large.
The new technologies introduced this time are designed to improve work efficiency and reduce costs. One of them is a very simple truss bridge inspection robot that combines a tire-equipped robot with guide rollers and an omni-directional camera to move around truss bridge members under the remote control of an operator.
The images of the slab and steel sections sent from the camera are transmitted in real time to the operator’s tablet. This allows the operator to inspect approximately 81% of the underside of the slab and 75% of the longitudinal girders, which is a significant improvement over the previous system.
However, even with this robot, there are areas where the robot cannot see about 20% of the truss bridges with complex structures, and the bridge inspection drone will cover these areas.
Two types of drones are used: a small drone (Skydio2) that can access narrow areas, and a large drone (PF2) that can take pictures even in dark places. The small drone that we were able to observe this time is the Skydio2, which captures 360° images through six fisheye lenses on the top and bottom, which are transmitted to a tablet in real time, just like the robot. In addition to the conventional visual inspection, the use of robots and drones will dramatically improve the accuracy of inspections.
If any damage is found after confirming this information, workers can directly access the bridge with ropes to conduct a more detailed investigation. This series of inspections has dramatically improved the efficiency of maintenance and management by eliminating blind spots and by allowing workers to accurately grasp the location of direct access points.
According to Metropolitan Expressway, the method of having workers use ropes to access all the points that cannot be checked by conventional inspection items and directly check the details would take more than five years to complete. In addition, the Arakawa Bay Bridge over the Arakawa River, which has shallow water and fast-flowing currents, is 870 m long and has high girders, making it difficult to inspect the bridge using a barge with an elevating work vehicle.
While observing the inspection, we could see deterioration and peeling of the paint and corrosion of the materials from a distance. The effectiveness of this method is very high, not only in terms of overall work efficiency, but also in terms of worker safety. In addition to the new technology using video images, the entire facility will be inspected using percussion and infrared thermography methods to determine its overall condition.
In parallel with the inspection technologies described above, the “i-DREAMs” maintenance management system unique to Metropolitan Highway was introduced. The system centrally manages a vast amount of data related to road maintenance and management. Data obtained from on-site inspection work can be registered with a single tablet at the site, and past history can also be viewed on-site. The system is equipped with a voice input system that can handle technical terms unique to construction sites, and also features a number of innovations to reduce the burden on workers on site, such as easy input of images.
In addition, the reports that were previously prepared at the office after work is now directly input into a tablet at the job site. i-DREAMs” will be the core system that supports the future maintenance and management of the entire Metropolitan Expressway, which has a 60-year history and continues to develop.
i-DREAMs” also utilizes 3D data from a 3D handheld scanner acquired on site, in addition to images from robot and drone cameras. As the name implies, this compact scanner, which can be held in one hand, creates 3D data of the facility to quantify the damage from all sides. The addition of this data facilitates accurate diagnosis of damage and planning of repairs and reinforcement. The scanner also records the condition of the facility after repair and reinforcement, enabling more advanced maintenance management to be carried out more efficiently.
The Metropolitan Expressway has a complicated structure due to its limited space, and is located in difficult-to-inspect areas such as on rivers and public roads. In addition, the traffic volume is extremely heavy. In addition, the technology disclosed this time will greatly contribute to the safety of Metropolitan Expressways in the future, given the social background of the shortage of engineers due to the decrease in the working-age population.
© Source travel watch
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