Project objectives and results
In order to ensure more rational, planned maintenance of transport infrastructure and to minimize the risk of catastrophic consequences of demolition of buildings, the development of innovative solutions in the field of maintenance of transport infrastructure buildings is necessary. The goal of the ASAP project is to develop a system for autonomous review and prediction of the integrity of transport infrastructure, as part of intelligent transport systems and logistics (PTPP 3) for road and rail infrastructure maintenance, monitoring and management. The system includes autonomous conducting of experimental tests of materials and structures with the help of robots and unmanned aerial vehicles, wireless real-time data collection, and then linking the results of experimental testing and numerical models to assess the service life and residual bearing capacity of structures, and storing data in a large database for end users.
According to the Technical Regulation for Construction Structures, the time interval between regular inspections must not exceed 5 years for bridges and other engineering buildings, which is carried out by visual inspection, measurements, tests and insight into the documentation of the building, appliances and equipment. The classic method of conducting regular inspections is:
- unsafe for examiners – increased safety risk for inspectors and increased safety risk for users of transport infrastructure buildings, assessor discomfort due to traffic which is taking place on the bridge during inspection, illumination of the area under inspection, unavailability of parts of the building and impact of wind, rain and other factors;
- inconsistent among the different examiners – since there is no protocol for reviewing and using the experimental parameters obtained, the assessment of service life and load capacity depends on the qualifications and knowledge of the person conducting the examinations, with examiners often changing due to public procurement rules;
- economically inefficient – requires expensive machinery or installation of auxiliary scaffolding for inspection of hard-to-reach places, large amount of working hours, closure of lanes or entire roads, which leads to large indirect costs;
- environmentally unsustainable – the use of heavy trucks and cranes, wood cutting for the purpose of accessing the elements, drilling of concrete rollers.
These shortcomings of the current, classic inspection of transport infrastructure are a challenge and motivation for the development of an autonomous system for inspecting transport infrastructure buildings. In order to develop the system as a product of high added value and knowledge-based services, the pooling of three interdisciplinary expert groups is needed, as well as the development of three aspects of ASAP:
- Protocol for rapid and efficient assessment of material and structures status with prediction of service life and assessment of the bearing capacity of structures, developed by the Faculty of Civil Engineering (GF), which will become a certified ASAP training program for training traffic infrastructure building examiners,
- Conceptual prototype of autonomous robotic system for testing materials and structures, based on robot and unmanned aerial vehicle, developed in cooperation between the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FSB) and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER),
- Collection of test data and connections with models and storage in the form available to traffic infrastructure managers, developed by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), with the concept of alarming systems of national security authorities, if during a certain period of time the reaction of the traffic infrastructure manager is absent, which leads to endangerment of the safety of road users.
Kratke činjenice
Lokacija: Zagreb
Vrijeme trajanja: 20.12.2019. – 19.12.2022.
Ukupna vrijednost projekta (HRK): 7.199.141,25
Odgovorne osobe: doc. dr. sc. Marijana Serdar – voditeljica projekta, doc. dr. sc. Marko Švaco – voditelj istraživačke skupine na FSB-u
Izvor financiranja: Europski fond za regionalni razvoj
The project was co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund
The website was co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund.
The content of the website is the sole responsibility of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.