Drone Inspection Enhancing Safety Of Bridg

by

kavinusa

Now that the drone craze has died down and everyone realizes that drones will not be the answer to all of their problems, lets discuss how drone inspections can be utilized to enhance the safety of our bridges. As we know regular and thorough bridge inspection can prevent accidents and increase the life of the infrastructure. Bridge failures and tragedies from the past has made the government and public concerned about the conditions of existing and newly built structures. As a result, many new technologies have been introduced to nondestructive testing methods to enhance the accuracy of the result, reduce the inspection time and increase the safety of the crew and public during bridge inspection.

Drone inspection is one of those technologies. Albeit a very new one, this technology has the ability to reduce inspection cost and time significantly. To understand this we can just discuss the basics like there will no longer be the need to utilize heavy equipment to inspect hard to reach areas of the bridge. Bridge inspectors will no longer need to climb and put their lives at risk. With a drone, similar kind of inspections can be done at a lower cost and in less time than the same inspections conducted today.

What kind of data drone collects?

During a drone inspection, both visual, infrared and thermal imagery data is collected for real-time. An automated statistical process is used to convert the imagery data into a 3D point cloud’ which is easy to understand. A skilled bridge inspector can easily interpret the data and identify the locations of deteriorations on the bridge. Since the drone-collected data is geo-referenced with real geographic coordinates, therefore, a map can be easily created for the inspection crew to inspect the drone located deterioration areas closely.

How is it different from conventional bridge inspection methods?

During traditional bridge inspection, crew members have to climb ladders, perform scaffolding, undertake rope access procedures and walk on the roof to inspect the whole structure and its components for deteriorations. These practices carry risks and take a huge amount of time. The bridge also needs to close down partially or completely to carry the inspection work but with drone inspection, overall bridge inspection can be done in a fraction of the time with quick and easy setup and even faster inspection time.

Infrastructure Preservation Corporation (IPC) is a trusted name in bridge inspections as well as a leader in nondestructive testing and robotic engineering. IPC utilizes the latest in nondestructive testing methods and robotics like Drones for quick surveying and inspection of complex structures. We have a range of patented inspection system for customized inspection of important bridge elements.

Although drone inspections can do a lot they are not a cure all. Using them above a bridge deck or in plain view of the public can be dangerous and should be avoided. Below the deck and out of the publics view they serve as a great additional tool to inspect hard to reach areas. For railroad bridge inspections that do no have pedestrian traffic they are great to obtain quick detailed visual inspection data. Although they are not a cure all, they do deserve a place in the inspection companies tool box and bridge owners should insist that they are utilized to keep costs down and provide more detailed information than is currently being collected.

Infrastructure Preservation Corporation was an early adopter of drones and developed a drone that can stay aflight for 55minutes which is required for large structures. IPCs drones also have a large payload capability so that additional inspection tools like lidar and infrared can be mounted and utilized during the same inspection.

For more information contact IPC at www.infrastructurepc.com or email info@infrastructurepc.com.

To know more about please follow this link:

Bridge Inspection

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Movable Bridge Inspections

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Article Source:

eArticlesOnline.com

Submitted by: Artur Victoria

A major error can occur in the use of an open employee communications system: That is communications for communications sake or simply over communication.

Sometimes there is a fine line between what is enough information for employees to do their jobs effectively and what is too much. Some organizations get carried away. In their effort to be candid and open, the downward communications flow becomes more than the employee or supervisor can handle. Managers should not pour out information on the basis of the philosophy that the more they know the better off they are. This philosophy ignores the whole issue of effectiveness, and also may be an expensive exercise.

The staff communications specialist may be the biggest offender in situations where there is over communication. He or she, in good faith, sets out to do a very complete and thorough job, and slips into the trap of communicating everything that comes along or can be dug out.

Whoever is responsible, the unintended result of communications overkill is that supervisors and employees stop paying attention. If the information flow is too heavy or is not pertinent, it will eventually be ignored, and an informal scuttlebutt system will take over. Formal communications may have lost credibility and become practically valueless to management with over communication.

Two control mechanisms should be at work in an open communications system to prevent the error of over communication. These are:

Audit and review of objectives by management and staff specialist.

Feedback from employees and supervisors on the amount and kind of information they are receiving.

There has to be balance in the communications program. Therefore, asking employees and supervisors if they are getting the information they need should be coupled with a question as to whether they would have job difficulty if this information were discontinued. The ultimate error is to continue a program merely because it’s there, long after it has ceased to be effective in helping get the job done.

It is difficult to find an organization or business which failed solely because of lack of employee communication. It is even difficult to find studies which report failure of an organization due to poor employee communications. Yet, it is rather obvious that employee communications, when lacking, or poorly conceived and carried out, can be a major handicap to organizational effectiveness.

Researchers concluded that in these cases there were only five basic causes which led employees to unionize in the face of employer preference that they not do so. The causes, not all of which were present in each case, included:

I. Introducing changes in policy, products, or equipment without sufficient advance notice and explanation

1. Ignoring or mishandling employee complaints and concerns

2. Providing minimal information as to the organization’s health, financial situation, plans, and problems

3. Pressing for productivity without involving employees in the need for improvement

4. Failing to find out, or failing to allow, employee needs and desires before making management decisions.

All four of these management failures can be avoided or remedied by improved employee communications. Management of groups involved in the study had so overloaded their supervisors with duties such as overseeing production, record keeping, ordering raw materials, filling out reports, etc., that employee communications suffered. The lack of proper emphasis in employee communications is shown by this research to be a barrier to intended operational results.

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