The Intel Falcon 8+ drone surveys Minneapolis’ Stone Arch Bridge. (Image courtesy of Intel.)
The Kentucky and Minnesota state transportation departments recently used Intel drones to make photogrammetry models of their state bridges.
Intel worked with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) to inspect the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge spanning Ohio and Kentucky and with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to inspect the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. Both bridges carry heavy traffic, making them inconvenient to shut down and therefore prime candidates for a drone-based aerial inspection. On the Beard Bridge project, the drone inspection was supplemented with a rope access inspection, whereas the Stone Arch inspection was conducted alongside an underwater survey performed by divers.
Intel conducted the inspections with its Falcon 8+ drone, a V-shaped octocopter with the ability to mount multiple different payloads for professional use, equipped with a Sony A7R digital camera. Workers used Intel’s Mission Control software to plan an automated flight plan for the drone before it took to the air, determining waypoints where it would stop and photograph the bridges. “We created the mission, loaded it into the Intel Falcon system, and we were able to take off, get it close to the structure, hit “play,” and it went to its first waypoint and flew the predetermined mission,” said Alicia McConnell, civil engineer at Michael Baker International, the…