Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington will lead a collaborative effort to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to inspect highways and railroads remotely and develop guidelines for how to safely complete the task. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), along with the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation (LSUASC) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, will provide support to the two-year project which is sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation.
One of the project goals is to determine how to use unmanned aerial vehicles to perform remote sensing and collect high-definition photos while conducting pavement forensics at the U.S. Highway 67 project site in Cleburne and at U.S. Highway 82 near Bell in Fannin County.
The UAVs also will collect data on the condition of railroad tracks and crossings on a section of track in south central Texas. LSUASC and TTI will develop procedural guidelines and best practices for the use of UAVs for this purpose.
“The use of UAVs in the United States is growing fast, and I look forward to working with the project team to see how they may be best utilized to study our transportation infrastructure,” said TTI Research Scientist Jeff Borowiec.
https://today.tamu.edu/2016/09/26/texas-sea-grant-college-program-uses-uavs-to-monitor-red-tide/
This story was originally posted on tti.tamu.edu.
