The latest developments in low flying unmanned robots with arms and the associated fields of intelligent control, computer vision and sensors open the floor for robotic solutions, exploitable in the near term, in the field of inspection of difficult-toaccess areas of the civil infrastructure in general and bridges in particular. The latter infrastructure is ageing requiring inspection and assessment. Presently, bridge inspection is primarily done through visual observations by inspectors. It relies upon the inspector having access to bridge components via access equipment (ladders, rigging and scaffolds) and vehicular lifts (manlifts, bucket trucks and under-bridge inspection vehicles). This is uncomfortable and potentially dangerous for the inspectors, while it interferes with the traffic contributing to bottlenecks and congestion. The results of the inspection are used to structurally assess the bridge in a following step. AEROBI, driven by the bridge inspection industry, adapts and integrates recent research results in low flying unmanned robots with arms, intelligent control in robotics, computer vision and sensing, in an innovative, integrated, low flying, robotic system with a specialised multi-joint arm that will scan concrete beams and piers in a bridge for potential cracks on the surface or concrete swelling or spalling. In case the width of the above cracks exceeds given limits, it will measure distance between parallel cracks, while it will contact the bridge to non-destructively measure the depth of cracks and deformation. In case of concrete swelling or spalling it will also contact the bridge to non-destructively measure delamination and the diameter of the reinforcing steel bars. The above will provide input for a structural bridge assessment that will be automatically performed by the proposed robotic system. The latter system, which is expected to be exploitable in the short term, will be field evaluated and demonstrated at two actual bridges.

The overall goal of RESIST is to increase the resilience of seamless transport operation to natural and man-made extreme events, protect the users of the European transport infrastructure and provide optimal information to the operators and users of the transport infrastructure. The project will address extreme events on critical structures, implemented in the case of bridges and tunnels attacked by all types of extreme physical, natural and man-made incidents, and cyber-attacks. The RESIST technology will be deployed and validated at 2 pilots in real conditions and infrastructures. RESIST will use risk analyses and leverage and further develop recent exploitable research results in robotics, driving under panic, sensing and communications, to dramatically improve the speed and effectiveness, while reducing the cost, of structural vulnerability assessment, situation awareness, response operations and increased users’ protection under extreme events towards a high level of resilience of the transport infrastructure at 3 levels: a) increased physical resilience of bridges/tunnels by robotic inspection and predictive analytics; b) restoration of services/routes back to normal quickly and permission of a continuous flow of passengers and freight across different modes of transport soon after an extreme event, which will be achieved by rapid and accurate robotic damage assessment after extreme physical events, cyber security solutions, alternative secure and continuous communication under emergency operations (including integration of terrestrial and satellite systems) and increased cross-modal flexibility; c) clear and effective communication of transport operators and users, emergency responders and the public in the vicinity, to minimise the impact of the disruption on people and businesses, by exploiting real-time data, available networks, social media and mobile technologies to allow for real-time emergency information dissemination.