{"id":20724,"date":"2019-05-28T10:44:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=20724"},"modified":"2019-05-28T10:44:14","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:44:14","slug":"drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Explore Using Drones for Bridge Inspections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Joe Burgett is working to make bridges safer through drone technology.
\nBurgett, an assistant professor in the\u00a0Department of Construction Science and Management<\/a>, has received grants totaling $94,000 to develop protocols for using small remote-controlled helicopters in bridge inspections.
\n\u201cWe can fly the drone all around the bridge, high and low, and be able to see any deficiencies,\u201d Burgett said.
\nBurgett, who holds an endowed professorship in the department, is the lead investigator in the project. Other investigators are\u00a0Dennis Bausman<\/a>, a construction science and management professor who also holds an endowed faculty chair; and Gurcan Comert, an associate professor at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina.
\nBurgett and Bausman share another distinction. Both have been recognized with one of the highest honors at Clemson University, the Alumni Master Teacher Award: Burgett in 2018, Bausman in 2002.
\nBurgett and his team are leading a small group of Clemson students who are studying the use of drones not only in bridge inspections but in land surveying as well.
\n\u201cWe can survey hundreds of acres in a few hours,\u201d he said. \u201cTraditionally, that would take weeks.\u201d
\nThe drone project, titled \u201cViability of Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems In Transportation Infrastructure Asset,\u201d is funded by two grants. The South Carolina Department of Transportation contributed $50,000; while a $44,000 grant was provided by The Center for Connectivity and Multimodal Mobility, an initiative of the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University. The money will be used for equipment and researcher salaries.
\n\u201cThere may be a half dozen states studying drone technology for these purposes, but we\u2019re on the leading edge,\u201d Burgett said.
\nInspecting bridges<\/strong>
\nDrones can reach some parts of a bridge that are difficult for humans to inspect.
\n\u201cIf the bridge is low enough, inspectors can get underneath it and put their hands on it, but a lot of bridges are taller or located over bodies of water,\u201d Burgett said.
\nThat process is time-consuming and it can create traffic congestion. Plus, bridge inspecting can be a dangerous job.
\n\u201cYou take down a lane of traffic and you\u2019re suspending people over the water,\u201d Burgett said. \u201cThe snooper truck is like a carnival ride and it bounces all over the place. It\u2019s not for the faint of heart.\u201d
\nBridges are required to be inspected at least once every four years. Some older bridges, however, are inspected more often.
\nA drone can cut down on labor and costs.
\n\u201cWith a drone, we capture a whole lot of images and we stitch them all together with software, and we can create a 3-D model on our computer,\u201d Burgett said. \u201cOur hope is that we can send this model to the bridge inspectors in Columbia and they can say, \u2018Huh, this looks pretty good. Maybe we can wait until next year for the inspection.\u2019\u201d
\nThe project\u2019s primary tool is a small helicopter with four propellers (also known as a quad copter or unmanned aerial system) about 2 feet by 2 feet, and 1.5 feet tall.
\nDynamic new field<\/strong>
\nUsing drones for research and commercial purposes is a relatively new but expanding field.
\n\u201cThis world has exploded,\u201d Burgett said. \u201cIn August 2016, the skies opened wide for drones. Before that, the FAA\u00a0 rules had not caught up with drones. It was very difficult to fly a drone for commercial purposes. You could do it as a hobby, but if it was for research or commercial purposes, you had to get special authorization. It took months and lots of red tape.\u201d
\nBurgett cautioned that drones would not completely replace the work of human inspectors, but they could reduce the human workload and speed up the process.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Burgett is working to make bridges safer through drone technology. Burgett, an assistant professor in the\u00a0Department of Construction Science and Management, has received grants totaling $94,000 to develop protocols for using small remote-controlled helicopters in bridge inspections. \u201cWe can fly the drone all around the bridge, high and low, and be able to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1026,2788],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-20724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-these-hills","tag-drones","tag-summer-2019-in-these-hills"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/Joe-Burgett_JW-03.28.19115.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20724"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=20724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}