通过数字双胞胎的镜头重新构想桥梁检查

Digital twins provide departments of transport (DOTs) and agencies with more trustworthy data about bridges, leading to safer, less expensive, more timely and more accurate inspections. Drones play an important role in capturing the data to build these twins.

Bridges are a key part of any transportation network, and maintaining these infrastructure assets is important to ensure public safety. To ensure that bridges are safe for public use, owners and engineers need all their data to be easily available, up to date and shareable with all stakeholders. Inspections that gauge the structural integrity of bridges, as well as information gathered during these inspections, give bridge owners and engineers the necessary data to plan for maintenance, rehabilitation and bridge replacement.

复杂

桥所有者的问题在于，传统的视觉检查是劳动密集型的，可能需要昂贵的设备，可能会带来安全风险，并且可能不准确，并且可能会易于使用，具体取决于可访问性和报告方法。这使得很难收集数据，这是有问题的，因为对历史变化的缺乏详细的了解可能会增加检查活动的时间和成本，并对公众的流动产生不利影响。此外，在某些国家 /地区，新的法规合规性规则和相关的报告要求增加了另一层复杂性。

一些宾利最创新的用户现在再保险imagining inspections through the lens of digital twins – digital representations of a physical asset, process or system as well as the engineering information that allows its performance to be understood and modelled. A digital twin can combine data from continuous surveys, photogrammetry, Lidar and sensors, and track changes to assets on a timeline. This enables owners to view the digital representation of the infrastructure asset and related real-world conditions over time. As DOTs and agencies are being pressed to show the most effective use of their limited funding, taking advantage of digital twins can provide for safer, less expensive, more timely and more accurate inspections. Digital twins allow owners and engineers to track historical changes and understand information such as the exact size of cracking, corrosion or section loss, rather than trying to determine this information by manually assessing images captured over time.

Cost savings

在美国，明尼苏达州DOT（MNDOT）等机构通过使用无人机来协助检查来节省多达40％。由于桥梁的生命周期如此长，通常长达75 - 100年，因此随着时间的推移跟踪结构的变化很重要。MNDOT发现，通过部署无人机并拥有数字双胞胎，可以随着时间的推移监视变化，并对桥梁有整体的看法。特别是，看到过去的检查在当前数据之上进行的检查可以提高效率并帮助预测未来。

There is great opportunity for agencies to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or ‘drones’) to complement and augment standard and in-field inspections. The data from these inspections can be reviewed quickly and easily in the office by viewing a time-lapse comparison of detailed changes, annotating specific areas of concern and noting anything that needs to be specifically reviewed in the field. Field crews can see all the inspector’s notes right on the structure, which is more visual, more accurate and more efficient. All of this is geared towards saving costs, avoiding risks and reducing the time required for inspections.

创新的思想

Digital twins help bridge owners to take advantage of innovative ideas, such as the concept of remote inspections. Through a digital twin of an asset, along with immersive inspection capabilities in Microsoft HoloLens, inspectors can conduct significant parts of the inspection while in the office. This reduces the time spent in the field, which makes the overall inspection quicker, safer, more efficient and less costly. A digital twin also provides flexibility to conduct more in-depth inspections without having to schedule expensive equipment and labour for that purpose. While increasing safety is the ultimate goal, applying digital twins over many large, complex or signature bridges can also lead to significant savings.

数字双胞胎的另一个关键好处是现实网格。这个更丰富的可视化层为利益相关者对基础架构和周围地形的理解增加了另一个维度。当代理商使用无人机协助其桥梁检查时，他们捕获的照片，视频和其他数据可用于生成桥梁的高分辨率现实网格。当与其他相关数据结合使用时，这提供了出色的数字双表示形式，无论是在地面还是下面的网络上，无论是在网络上还是下面。随着时间的流逝，记录这些现实网格同样可以为结构内的变化提供更好的见解。此外，使用现实网格进行检查可以大大减少检查员在现场花费的时间。

In summary, utilizing digital twins and technology including UAVs to collect, process, store and analyse large amounts of data can reduce time and costs while increasing the quality of inspections. The technology can improve safety for inspectors and the public at large, and help to preserve bridge infrastructure into the future.