A General Method for Pre-Flight Preparation in Data Collection for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Bridge Inspection

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have garnered significant attention in recent years due to their unique features. Utilizing UAVs for bridge inspection offers a promising solution to overcome challenges associated with traditional methods. While UAVs present considerable advantages, there are challenges associated with their use in bridge inspection, particularly in ensuring effective data collection. The primary objective of this study is to tackle the challenges related to data collection in bridge inspection using UAVs. A comprehensive method for pre-flight preparation in data collection is proposed. A well-structured flowchart has been created, covering crucial steps, including identifying the inspection purpose, selecting appropriate hardware, planning and optimizing flight paths, and calibrating sensors. The method has been tested in two case studies of bridge inspections in the State of New Mexico. The results show that the proposed method represents a significant advancement in utilizing UAVs for bridge inspection. These results indicate improvements in accuracy from 7.19% to 21.57% in crack detection using the proposed data collection method. By tackling the data collection challenges, the proposed method serves as a foundation for the application of UAVs for bridge inspection.