Applications:  

• Infrastructure inspections at height 
• Structural assessment of bridges, high buildings, and containments 
• Detection of defects and delaminations, inspection of tendon ducts, thickness measurements 

The Uncrewed Aerial Concrete Inspection System (UACIS) research project represents the introduction of modern and highly capable drone technology to non-destructive testing (NDT). Drones have the potential to increase efficiency and effectiveness in NDT inspections and structural diagnostics. The objective is the development of drone-based inspection systems to assess the structural health conditions of infrastructures. In particular, bridges, containments, or cooling towers are the focus of these inspections due to their increasing age and limited accessibility. The recently developed inspection system is based on a Voliro drone platform which is - in addition to non-contact inspection - also able to apply mechanical contact forces to component surfaces in almost any orientation. Areas that are otherwise difficult to access are thus also reachable for contact inspection techniques. This drone can realize sufficiently large contact pressures to component surfaces for several seconds. A novel drone-based impact echo sensor unit was developed for this drone platform and has been constantly improved. Furthermore, a half-cell potential sensor unit for corrosion inspections is under development. Other NDT techniques will be addressed in the future within our vision to provide a complete and comprehensive drone-based NDT inspection tool.