In order to ensure a more rational, planned maintenance of transport infrastructure and to minimize the risk of catastrophic consequences of the demolition of buildings, it is necessary to develop innovative solutions in the field of maintenance of transport infrastructure buildings. The aim of the ASAP project is to develop a system for autonomous inspection and prediction of the integrity of transport infrastructure, as part of intelligent transport systems and logistics for road and rail infrastructure maintenance, monitoring and management.
The system involves the autonomous conduct of experimental testing of materials and construction using robots and UAVs, real-time wireless data acquisition, and then post-process integration of experimental test results and numerical models to estimate the service life and residual load-carrying capacity of the structures, and store the data in a large database for end users.
The shortcomings of the current, classic inspection of transport infrastructure structures are the challenge and motivation for developing an autonomous inspection system for transport infrastructure buildings. In order to develop the system as a product of high added value and knowledge-based services, it is necessary to bring together three interdisciplinary expert groups and to develop three aspects of the ASAP system:
- Protocol for the fast and efficient assessment of the condition of materials and structures and the prediction of useful lifespan and the assessment of the load-bearing capacity of structures, developed by the Faculty of Civil Engineering, which becomes a certified ASAP training program for training road construction examiners infrastructure;
- A conceptual prototype of an autonomous robotic material and construction test system based on a robot and an unmanned aerial vehicle, developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing;
- Collection of test data and model connectivity and storage in a format accessible to transport infrastructure managers, developed by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, with the concept of an alarm system for national safety authorities, if during a particular time period there is no response from the transport infrastructure manager which endangers the safety of road users.
The project coordinator is the Faculty of Civil Engineering (UNIZG-GF) and project partners are the Faculty of Electrical Enginerring and Computing (UNIZG-FER) and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (UNIZG-FSB).