Many of us travel over bridges on our daily commutes. In fact, some of us drive long distances on these bridges. When was the last time your bridge was tested for structural integrity? What type of testing was done. Thankfully, there are people concentrating on these topics so we can drive safely without worry of a bridge collapse.
Often, bridge testing is done manually, with engineers actually walking the span of the bridge, looking for racks and irregularities. German and Italian scientists have worked together to develop a system that will hopefully make this process much more accurate and efficient.
They have created image processing software that will systematically analyze photographic images of the bridges, documenting cracks and troublesome areas. The software will compile the data and transmit it to engineers who can compare the new data to the previously collected images. The comparisons will allow scientists and engineers to see faults and potential issues long before the previous technology would have allowed.
The largest problem they are facing is the wide variety of bridges and designs. The discolorations and other signifiers may be different based on the material and design of the bridge. The software handles this by using unique data for each bridge being analyzed, so it will only be compared to itself. Hopefully, this technology will prevent future bridge collapses and keep all of us safe on our work commutes.
Jeffrey Rodriguez is a business developer / web ninja for Aorist Technical Staffing.