Abstract
In July 2014, the inspection of bridges was obligated. It is conducted one every five years. Inspection method of cable-stayed bridge cables is largely divided into two ways. The first way is the visual inspection using aerial work platforms. In the case of the platforms, the height from the bridge surface is limited to about 30m. In addition, traffic regulations is required for the inspection. The second way is the inspection using climbing techniques. The climbing is difficult to ensure the safety of inspectors.
To overcome these problems, the authors have developed an automatic inspection robot for the cables of cable-stayed bridges. The purpose in the study is to develop an inspection record system for the robot. Concretely, the system takes continuously scanned images of cable surface by using USB cameras, miniPC, and lighting devices. Then, it generates a panoramic image of cable surface. However, the existing system could not create an accurate panoramic image if the existing system robot rotates while recording. Therefore, in the study, the author developed the image combining method for taking account of rotation of the robot by using information of angle measured by clinometer mounted on the robot. Furthermore, the system was applied to the inspection of 7 meters cable tube in order to demonstrate the accuracy of panoramic image.
