Summary:

The capabilities of unmanned / uncrewed aerial system (UAS) continue to advance, with a wide variety of applications useful for the condition assessment and monitoring of transportation infrastructure. This Phase 3 project focused on four UAS use cases and how to integrate their results into MDOT databases and workflows. The four use cases were for traffic operations, bridge inspection assessment, construction inspection, and lidar UAS for design survey. Extensive field data collections at multiple sites in Michigan helped to develop and demonstrate how UAS-enabled methods can create high resolution geospatial outputs useful for MDOT operations and maintenance. Traffic data created included origin-destination results and traffic counts. Bridge inspection data created included automated detection of spalls and delaminations, and 3D models of bridges. Construction inspection data created included rates of production for concrete removal and asphalt paving, and building information model (BIM) data. Lidar UAS data created included high-resolution 3D models useful for surveying. Two additional project tasks documented the data results and methods, and how these could be integrated into appropriate MDOT workflows. 

Publications:

• Final Report