Contributors 15 Preface 17 Acronyms 21 I Methodologies 22 1 Infrastructure Robotics: an introduction 23 1.1 Infrastructure Inspection and Maintenance . 24 1.2 Infrastructure Robotics . 28 1.3 Considerations in infrastructure robotics research . 37 1.4 Opportunities and Challenges .
40 1.5 Concluding Remarks . 43 Bibliography . 43 2 Design of Infrastructure Robotic Systems 49 2.1 Special Features of Infrastructure . 49 2.2 The Design Process . 51 2.
3 Types of Robots and their Design and Operation . 52 2.4 Software System Design . 56 2.5 An example: Development of the CROC Design Concept . 57 2.6 Some Other Examples . 63 2.
7 Actuator Systems . 65 2.8 Concluding Remarks . 68 Bibliography . 68 3 Perception in complex and unstructured infrastructure environments 71 3.1 Introduction . 71 3.2 Sensor description .
74 3.2.1 2D LiDAR . 74 3.2.2 3D LiDAR . 75 3.2.
3 Sonar . 75 3.2.4 Monocular camera . 76 3.2.5 Stereo camera . 77 3.
2.6 GRB-D camera . 77 3.3 Problem description . 78 3.4 Theoretical Foundations . 80 3.4.
1 Extended Kalman filter . 80 3.4.2 Nonlinear least squares . 83 3.4.3 Environment representations . 87 3.
4.4 Mapping techniques . 89 3.4.5 localization techniques . 94 3.4.6 SLAM techniques .
97 3.5 Implementation . 105 3.5.1 localization . 105 3.5.2 SLAM .
106 3.6 Case studies . 107 3.6.1 Mapping in confined space . 107 3.6.2 localization in confined space .
108 3.6.3 SLAM in underwater bridge environment . 109 3.7 Conclusion and discussion . 110 Bibliography . 110 4 Machine Learning and Computer Vision Applications in Civil Infrastructure Inspection and Monitoring 113 4.1 Introduction .
114 4.2 GNN-based Pipe Failure Prediction . 115 4.2.1 Background . 115 4.2.2 Problem Formulation .
117 4.2.3 Data Preprocessing . 118 4.2.4 GNN Learning . 119 4.2.
5 Failure Pattern Learning . 122 4.2.6 Failure Predictor . 123 4.2.7 Experimental Study . 124 4.
3 Computer Vision Based Signal Aspect Transition Detection . 126 4.3.1 Background . 126 4.3.2 Signal Detection Model . 127 4.
3.3 Track Detection Model . 129 4.3.4 Optimization for Target Locating . 133 4.4 Conclusion and Discussions . 138 Bibliography .
140 5 Coverage Planning and Motion Planning of Intelligent Robots for Civil Infrastructure Maintenance 147 5.1 Introduction to Coverage and Motion Planning . 147 5.2 Coverage Planning Algorithms for a Single Robot . 150 5.2.1 An Off-line Coverage Planning Algorithm . 150 5.
2.2 A Real-time Coverage Planning Algorithm . 155 5.3 Coverage Planning Algorithms for Multiple Robots . 161 5.3.1 Base Placement Optimization . 161 5.
3.2 Area Partitioning and Allocation . 166 5.3.3 Adaptive Coverage Path Planning . 171 5.4 Conclusions . 175 Bibliography .
178 6 Methodologies in Physical Human-Robot Collaboration for Infrastructure Maintenance 181 6.1 Introduction . 182 6.2 Autonomy, tele-operation, and physical human-robot collaboration . 183 6.2.1 Autonomous Robots . 184 6.
2.2 Tele-operated Robots . 186 6.2.3 Physical Human-Robot Collaboration . 188 6.3 Control Methods . 190 6.
3.1 Motion Control . 190 6.3.2 Force Control . 192 6.4 Adaptive Assistance paradigms . 194 6.
4.1 Manually Adapted Assistance . 196 6.4.2 Assistance-As-Needed paradigms . 197 6.4.3 Performance-based assistance .
198 6.4.4 Physiology-based assistance . 199 6.5 Safety framework for physical human-robot collaboration . 200 6.6 Performance-based role change . 203 6.
7 Case Study . 206 6.8 Discussion . 208 Acknowledgement . 209 Bibliography . 209 II Robotic system design and applications 216 7 Steel Bridge Climbing Robot Design and Development 219 7.1 Introduction . 220 7.
2 Recent climbing robot platforms developed by the ARA lab . 225 7.3 Overall Design . 227 7.3.1 Mechanical Design and Analysis . 230 7.4 Overall Control Architecture .
235 7.4.1 Control System Framework . 236 7.5 Experiment Results . 247 7.5.1 Switching control .
248 7.5.2 Robot navigation in mobile and Worming transformation . 251 7.5.3 Robot Deployment . 254 7.6 Conclusion and Future Work .
256 Bibliography . 257 8 Underwater robots for cleaning and inspection of underwater structures 265 8.1 Introduction to maintenance of underwater structures . 266 8.2 Robot system design . 268 8.2.1 Hull design and manoeuvring system .
270 8.2.2 Robot arms for docking and water-jet cleaning . 271 8.3 Sensing and perception in underwater environments . 274 8.3.1 Underwater Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) around bridge piles .
275 8.3.2 Marine growth identification . 277 8.4 Software architecture . 280 8.5 Robot navigation, motion planning and system integration . 282 8.
5.1 Localisation and navigation in open water . 282 8.5.2 System integration . 284 8.6 Testing in a lab setup and trials in the field . 285 8.
6.1 Operation procedure . 287 8.6.2 Autonomous navigation in narrow environments . 289 8.6.3 Vision-b.