Remote Inspection

Remote sensing of surface and subsurface defects

Remote sensing technologies and techniques are still facing the complex task of effectively and autonomously inspecting infrastructures and detecting hidden defects over and underground.

Examples include and are not limited to utility poles, pylons, bridges, tunnels, and wind turbines. Thus, any non-visible damage and defects can be hardly recognized without destructively revealing them.

This group is engaged in establishing a benchmark concept and methodologies for airborne remote sensing of surface and subsurface defects in large and complex infrastructures with the ambition to lay the foundation to enable that infrastructures are in service to their true remaining useful lifetime and prevent unpredicted failure.

Research methods include airborne scanning using compact multi-modal sensing (i.e. visual, infrared thermal, radar tomography, and laser absorption spectroscopy) for collecting data from long distances and uncovering defects.