Uncrewed Aerial Concrete Inspection System (UACIS)
Our vision is to introduce modern and highly capable drone technology to Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) to achieve more reliable, efficient, and robust inspections at height.
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- Nuclear Inspectorate
- NDE Laboratory
- UACIS - Uncrewed Aerial Concrete Inspection System
Uncrewed Aerial Concrete Inspection System (UACIS)
Our vision is to introduce modern and highly capable drone technology to Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) to achieve more reliable, efficient, and robust inspections at height.
Applications:
- Infrastructure inspections at height
- Structural assessment of bridges, high buildings, and containments
- Detection of defects, delaminations and active corrosion
- Inspection of tendon ducts and thickness measurements
What is UACIS?
The Uncrewed Aerial Concrete Inspection System (UACIS) 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 and deployment of drone-based inspection systems to assess the structural health conditions of infrastructures. Particularly bridges, containments, or cooling towers are the focus of these inspections due to their increasing age and limited accessibility.
Our inspection system
The recently developed inspection system is based on drone platforms from Voliro and Aithon, which are - 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.
Impact-Echo and half-cell-potential
The Voliro 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. In addition, our sensor unit for the potential field method can detect active corrosion.
Ultrasound
The drone from Aithon attaches itself to concrete surfaces using a powerful suction system and can be equipped with our ultrasonic testing unit for ultrasound inspections.
Other NDT techniques will be addressed in the future within our vision to provide a complete and comprehensive drone-based NDT inspection tool.
Discover the benefits of drone-based concrete inspection for your project.
Contact us today for a consultation.