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Research Interests

My broad research interests lay in using robotics for common civil engineering tasks. Some of the most promissing areas in civil engineering that could greatly benefit from robotics technologies include inspection and health monitoring, construction progress and quality control monitoring, as well as structure decommissioning and demolition. My research is focusing on how we can use current robotics technologies to perform these tasks and how we need to implement and alter these mechatronics algorithms to work well in specific civil infrastructure environments.

My work to date has involved creating robot platforms equipped with a suite of integrated, synchronized and calibrated sensors (e.g., GPS, IMU, Cameras, Lidar). I have developed my own 3D mapping (SLAM) software to fuse sensor data together while the robot is driving in a way to continuously track the robot's pose and generate a 3D map of the surrounding environment. I have also helped develop an inspection software stack that interprets the 3D maps generated from SLAM as well as the images to extract important inspection information from this data.

For example, we have performed an automated inspection of a parking garage where we generated a 3D map, processed the images to detect all the concrete path jobs on the slab soffit, and produced an inspection report listing all the defects and their size. This same software stack can be used in a similar fashion for the assessment of cracks, concrete spalls, delaminations (using the infrared camera), rust staining, and others. Furthermore, the maps can be compared with previous scans or CAD models to detect deformations or any change in the geometry or location of objects.

Other applications of interest include inspection of bridges, nuclear facilities, air bases, naval ports, general industrial facilities, as well as progress monitoring on construction sites.