The US state of Minnesota is using drones to monitor the infrastructure of some of its 20,000 bridges. Unmanned aerial vehicles can inspect hard-to-reach cracks, hover close to ageing bearings and scan entire bridge lengths for considerably less cost than traditional methods. High-resolution images can then be stitched together into three-dimensional models, which engineers can examine on computers. Minnesota launched a $$2.5 billion scheme to overhaul hundreds of bridges in 2008, a year after part of I-35 collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people and injuring a further 145.
The US state of Minnesota is using drones to monitor the infrastructure of some of its 20,000 bridges. Unmanned aerial vehicles can inspect hard-to-reach cracks, hover close to ageing bearings and scan entire bridge lengths for considerably less cost than traditional methods. High-resolution images can then be stitched together into three-dimensional models, which engineers can examine on computers. Minnesota launched a $2.5bn scheme to overhaul hundreds of bridges in 2008, a year after part of I-35 collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people and injuring a further 145.