Intelligent Robotic Diver for Underwater Bridge Pylon Cleaning and Inspection -- Scoping Study and Robot Design

Project Member(s): Liu, D., Dissanayake, G., Paul, G., Huang, S., Waldron, K.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Roads and Maritime Services (formerly known as RTA) (Roads and Maritime Services)

Start year: 2014

Summary: The primary objective of this research is to develop an autonomous robotic system that will enable safe and cost-effective underwater cleaning and inspection of bridge substructures. To achieve this objective, a number of research and engineering challenges need to be addressed. As the first stage of this research, this project will undertake a scoping study and robot design.

Publications:

Woolfrey, JK, Liu, DK & Carmichael, M 2016, 'Kinematic Control of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator System Using Autoregressive Prediction of Vehicle Motion and Model Predictive Control', Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, IEEE, Stockholm, Sweden.
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Zhang, T, Huang, S, Liu, D, Shi, L, Zhou, C & Xiong, R 2016, 'A Method of State Estimation for Underwater Vehicle Navigation Around A Cylindrical Structure', 2016 IEEE 11th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA), IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, IEEE, Hefei, China, pp. 101-106.
View/Download from: UTS OPUS or Publisher's site

Keywords: Underwater robots, bridge inspection and maintenance, robot control

FOR Codes: Mechanical Engineering, Rail Infrastructure and Networks, Transport Engineering, Machinery and Equipment not elsewhere classified, Manufacturing Robotics and Mechatronics (excl. Automotive Mechatronics), Road Infrastructure and Networks