Vision-Based Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Automated Structural Monitoring and Geo-Structural Analysis of Civil Infrastructure Systems
Creators: name: Zhou, Hao
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: mobile sensor network
subject: robotics and autonomous systems
subject: unmanned aerial vehicle
subject: computer vision
subject: Kalman filter
subject: Civil and Environmental Engineering
subject: Engineering

description: The emergence of wireless sensors capable of sensing, embedded computing, and wireless communication has provided an affordable means of monitoring large-scale civil infrastructure systems with ease. To date, the majority of the existing monitoring systems, including those based on wireless sensors, are stationary with measurement nodes installed without an intention for relocation later. Many monitoring applications involving structural and geotechnical systems require a high density of sensors to provide sufficient spatial resolution to their assessment of system performance. While wireless sensors have made high density monitoring systems possible, an alternative approach would be to empower the mobility of the sensors themselves to transform wireless sensor networks (WSNs) into mobile sensor networks (MSNs). In doing so, many benefits would be derived including reducing the total number of sensors needed while introducing the ability to learn from the data obtained to improve the location of sensors installed. One approach to achieving MSNs is to integrate the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the monitoring application. UAV-based MSNs have the potential to transform current monitoring practices by improving the speed and quality of data collected while reducing overall system costs. The efforts of this study have been chiefly focused upon using autonomous UAVs to deploy, operate, and reconfigure MSNs in a fully autonomous manner for field monitoring of civil infrastructure systems. This study aims to overcome two main challenges pertaining to UAV-enabled wireless monitoring: the need for high-precision localization methods for outdoor UAV navigation and facilitating modes of direct interaction between UAVs and their built or natural environments. A vision-aided UAV positioning algorithm is first introduced to augment traditional inertial sensing techniques to enhance the ability of UAVs to accurately localize themselves in a civil infrastructure system for placement of wireless sensors. Multi-resolution fiducial markers indicating sensor placement locations are applied to the surface of a structure, serving as navigation guides and precision landing targets for a UAV carrying a wireless sensor. Visual-inertial fusion is implemented via a discrete-time Kalman filter to further increase the robustness of the relative position estimation algorithm resulting in localization accuracies of 10 cm or smaller. The precision landing of UAVs that allows the MSN topology change is validated on a simple beam with the UAV-based MSN collecting ambient response data for extraction of global mode shapes of the structure. The work also explores the integration of a magnetic gripper with a UAV to drop defined weights from an elevation to provide a high energy seismic source for MSNs engaged in seismic monitoring applications. Leveraging tailored visual detection and precise position control techniques for UAVs, the work illustrates the ability of UAVs to—in a repeated and autonomous fashion—deploy wireless geophones and to introduce an impulsive seismic source for in situ shear wave velocity profiling using the spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW) method. The dispersion curve of the shear wave profile of the geotechnical system is shown nearly equal between the autonomous UAV-based MSN architecture and that taken by a traditional wired and manually operated SASW data collection system. The developments and proof-of-concept systems advanced in this study will extend the body of knowledge of robot-deployed MSN with the hope of extending the capabilities of monitoring systems while eradicating the need for human interventions in their design and use.