Using Unmanned Aerial Systems to Augment Monitoring Aufeis Directly Under Bridges

To date, several years of data have been collected for Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) to research and monitor the relationship between bridge structures and abutments, and underlying aufeis. These data have been acquired with manned aircraft and ultimately result in elevation point-cloud datasets from which elevation profiles of the river-ice both upstream and downstream from the bridge are generated and analyzed. These data collected by manned aircraft, although valuable to learning more about the impact of aufeis on bridges, is unable to capture information about the precise point of contact between the bridge itself and the aufeis being studied. The project goal is to determine the usefulness of using UAS (drone aircraft) to fly under bridges in Alaska in order to capture precise data about the interactions between bridge structures and abutments with seasonal aufeis, and to merge these data with larger extent datasets captured by the manned aircraft.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $150000
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  Alaska Division
  709 West 9th Street,
  Juneau, AK  United States  99802-1648
• Project Managers:

  Bosin, Anna

• Performing Organizations:

  Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities RD&T2

  3132 Channek Dr.
  Juneau, AK  United States  99801
• Start Date: 20190101
• Expected Completion Date: 20211231
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Abutments; Bridges; Data collection; Drones; Ice
• Geographic Terms: Alaska
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Data and Information Technology; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01677632
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 13 2018 6:45PM