Inspection and Maintenance

This Chapter summarizes the application of aerial robotic manipulation to inspection and maintenance. After a short introduction, it is devoted to the application of aerial manipulation to contact inspection in oil and gas industries and in bridges. The C

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Abstract This Chapter summarizes the application of aerial robotic manipulation to inspection and maintenance. After a short introduction, it is devoted to the application of aerial manipulation to contact inspection in oil and gas industries and in bridges. The Chapter introduces different strategies including sensing while flying, installation of permanent sensors and the deployment and retrieving of a mobile robotic system. The AEROX system for industrial inspection is also presented.

1 Introduction Robotic Inspection and Maintenance is a very wide field involving industrial facilities, energy generation and transportation, civil infrastructures and buildings. The Global market of inspection and maintenance has been estimated at 450 Billion Euro per year. The industrial facilities to be inspected are very diverse including tanks, pipes, chimneys and other industrial infrastructures. The inspection is needed to check the effect of the corrosion and structural problems. A. Ollero (B) GRVC Robotics Lab Sevilla, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain e-mail: [email protected] A. Viguria · M. Angel Trujillo Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies, FADA-CATEC, Seville, Spain e-mail: [email protected] M. Angel Trujillo e-mail: [email protected] M. Oetiker General Electrical Inspection Robotics, Zurich, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] B. Revaz Sensima Inspection Sàrl, Gland, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 A. Ollero and B. Siciliano (eds.), Aerial Robotic Manipulation, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics 129, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12945-3_26

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Energy generation plants share the above elements but also involves others in renewable energy generation such as, for example, wind turbines and elements of solar plants. The wind turbines should be inspected to detect structural problems as well as the effects of bird crashes in the blades. Solar energy plants involves large surfaces of solar panels that should maintain the reflectivity. Electrical energy transportation consist of electrical lines and substations. Here it is very relevant to maintain the isolation in the components. Also it is important to maintain the distance of the electrical lines to the vegetation and buildings. Civil infrastructures include bridges, tunnels, roads, damns and others. Obviously structural inspection plays the main role involving the detection of cracks, deformations and effects of the corrosion on surfaces. The inspection of buildings includes thermal isolation and structural inspection, particularly after disasters such as earthquakes. The inspection and maintenance of all the above infrastructures involves huge costs and compromises the safety of the workers. In this chapter the application of robotic technologies, including aerial robotics, is shortly summarized. Then, the application of aerial robotic manipulation is focused presenting two use cases: the contact inspection of oil and gas industries and the inspecti