INFORMATION DISPLAY SYSTEM FOR SMALL BRIDGES USING RFID AND QR CODES

Abstract

 There are 530,000 small bridges with lengths of 2 - 15 m. An ordinance by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism requires periodic close-up visual inspection of bridges once every 5 years. Significant time was spent identifying the bridges to be inspected. The aim of this study is to improve the inspection efficiency for small bridges whose names cannot be confirmed on-site by using a tablet terminal to display names and overviews of target bridges. The system also eliminates inspection errors and omissions, improving the reliability of inspection results. The developed system uses RFID and QR codes as a tool for reading bridge names with a tablet, and we demonstrated its on-site use. We selected as study sites five small bridges in Niigata City. RFID tags can be read from 23 - 27 cm, so bridge sides are appropriate locations for their attachment. Regarding system operability, a bridge maintenance expert described the system as having mainly simple operations, making it easy to use and not burdensome.