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- Title
Proposal and Experimental Validation of Suspended and Power-Tethered Drone (SPTD) for Inspection of High Bridges.
- Authors
Vicoy, Leynard; Aldueso, Karl Martin; Salaan, Carl John
- Abstract
Bridges play an essential role in the economy. Any significant damage requiring close down may halt any economic activity. As such, periodic inspection and maintenance of bridges are of utmost importance. However, the traditional method of inspection using scaffolding is time-consuming and expensive. For instance, bucket trucks for high bridge inspections are costly, dangerous, and cause traffic disruption. Meanwhile, drones can be a cheap and safe alternative method for inspection. However, regular drones have limited flight time and risk falling and getting damaged if the drone malfunctions or drains power. This study thus proposes a suspended and power-tethered drone to address the issues of drone use. The drone emulates the bucket truck method for visual inspection. This power-tethered drone is designed to provide the unlimited flight time required for more extended and undisrupted inspection tasks. The tether will also serve as a support if the drone malfunctions. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a suspended and powertethered drone (SPTD) and the various strategies used in this drone design, including power tether, tether control, and drone localization. Multiple experiments were performed to verify the performance of the proposed system.
- Subjects
BRIDGE inspection; INSPECTION &; review; BRIDGE maintenance &; repair; ECONOMIC activity; COMMERCIAL drones; TETHERED satellites
- Publication
Engineering Letters, 2022, Vol 30, Issue 3, p1025
- ISSN
1816-093X
- Publication type
Article