Enhancing Structural Safety and Promoting Equity in Infrastructure Maintenance through Human-Centered Bridge Inspection empowered by Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality

Bridges are crucial civil infrastructure, but their deterioration over time poses significant safety risks. Traditional human visual inspections are limited in accuracy and efficiency, leading to challenges in maintaining the inventory of bridges in the United States, particularly in economically disadvantaged communities. Leveraging recent advancements in computer vision (CV), artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality (AR), the team proposes a novel human-centered approach to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of concrete bridge inspections and promote equity in infrastructure maintenance. By automating detection and documentation of damage in concrete bridges, and empowering human inspectors by overlaying real-time detection results onto bridges thereby enabling human-machine collaboration, the project aims to improve inspection effectiveness and efficiency, promote equity in infrastructure maintenance, and enhance public safety.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $171,766.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348307

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Mid-America Transportation Center

  University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  2200 Vine Street, PO Box 830851
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68583-0851
• Project Managers:

  Stearns, Amy

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Kansas, Lawrence

  Transportation Research Institute
  2117 Learned Hall, 1530 W 15th Street
  Lawrence, KS  United States  66045
• Principal Investigators:

  Li, Jian

  Bennett, Caroline

  Collins, William

• Start Date: 20240601
• Expected Completion Date: 20260630
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Artificial intelligence; Augmented reality; Automation; Bridge engineering; Bridges; Computer vision; Human machine systems; Inspection; Real time information
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Data and Information Technology; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01972419
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-America Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348307
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Nov 21 2025 2:16PM