Facilities

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) utilizes electromagnetic (EM) waves to identify the subsurface defects locations such as corrosion of steel. As a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technology, GPR has been considered as a highly promising technology for detecting and characterizing deterioration in concrete decks. The main advantages of GPR include but not limited to:

• Capability of fast scanning with non-contact antenna.
• Very sensitive to metal objects, moisture and electrical conductivity.
• Can easily penetrate through the air and asphalt layer
• Inspection result is reproducible.
• Commercial equipment and application software are well-developed.

Infrared thermography (IR) is a modern, non-destructive evaluation technology for monitoring and assessing built environments. It mainly relies on measuring surface temperature to identify any potential defects or damages. Currently, IR has been introduced widely in applications such as facility condition assessment and energy performance analysis of existing buildings. Recently, the rapid improvement of high-defined IR cameras has become a powerful tool in infrared sensing. On the other hand, another notable advancement is taking place in the manufacturing of Unmanned Aerial systems (UAS) in terms of its sizes, performance, cost, and system configurations. As a result, the modern trend was successful in implementing the high-defined IR cameras with UAS. UAS-based thermal imagery systems are widely used in several applications including the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries. DJI Matrice100 equipped with a high-defined IR camera Flir Zenmuse XT represents the UAS-based Thermal imagery state-of-the-art. This system can be used effectively in several applications that include but not limited to; inspection and condition assessments of building envelopes, building roofs, and infrastructures, etc.

Ladybug spherical camera provides 360˚ visual coverage by integrating six cameras while it collects the video from more than 75% of the full sphere in real-time. One of the purpose of using such cameras in our research is to maximise our field of view for monitoring the construction sites. Additionally, by installing this camera inside the cabin of the heavy construction equipment (i.e. excavator, dump truck, etc.), we have the similar visual experience to the operator but remotely from the office.

The smart sensory system for data acquisition and communication consists of:

• Waspmote® Smart boards: hosts a variety of sensors that allow monitoring of multiple parameters involving a customized wide range of applications.
• Waspmote® Microcontrollers: Small computer on a single integrated circuit containing processor, memory and programmable in/out peripherals.
• Meshlium®: IoT gateway router specially designed to connect Waspmote sensor nodes to the Internet via Ethernet, Wi-Fi and 4G/3G/2G interfaces.

The usage of these components allows us to easily deploy IoT networks in an easy and scalable way.

Laser scanning is also known as Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), it is an optical sensor dependent technique that uses laser scanners to scan the exterior surfaces of objects. The main concept of laser scanning relies on transforming the spatial data of object surfaces into a 3D point cloud (Bhatla et al., 2012). Technically, laser scanners emit a laser beam that reflects with objects surfaces and returns back to calculate the distance between the scanner center and the object. By measuring the distance between the center of the scanner and the object, it is possible to detect the accurate position (coordinates X, Y, and Z) of objects with respect to the scanner position.