It’s an icon of Australia’s architectural and infrastructure history, but the Sydney Harbour Bridge poses a significant OH&S challenge for those tasked with its maintenance.
Not too many researchers can claim to have founded a new field of study, but when Distinguished Professor Dikai Liu was challenged to solve a problem involving Sydney Harbour Bridge, he did just that.
“The aim was to develop autonomous robotic systems that could assist in steel bridge maintenance, with the ultimate goal of improving workers’ occupational health and safety,” says Liu, Director of the UTS Centre for Autonomous Systems.
Professor Dikai Liu and his grit-blasting robot (photo supplied), with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background (photographer: Taksil Dias)
Not only did he fulfil his aim, the resultant technology and creation of infrastructure robotics as a field of research has sparked worldwide interest.
And with more than 270,000 steel bridges in the US, Europe and Japan alone, coupled with a global abrasive blasting market that’s worth A$1.2 billion, Liu’s purpose-built autonomous systems have huge potential to shape the future of global infrastructure maintenance.
The story began in 2006 with a collaboration between the NSW Roads and Maritime Service and UTS to address Sydney Harbour Bridge’s annual A$18 million maintenance bill. Potentially deadly workplace hazards included a 134-metre drop to water from the top of the bridge and a risk of exposure to lead-based paint and fine dust particles.
Over six years, UTS researchers developed two autonomous grit-blasting robots, purpose-built to perform condition assessments on the steel girder bridge and to grit blast old paint and corrosion in preparation for repainting and repairs.
“The research resulted in the launch of a spin-out company, Sabre Autonomous Solutions, which was developed to take these robotic solutions to market,” Liu says.
“Sabre is further developing this advanced technology for applications in other industry sectors, such as the manufacturing and oil and gas industries.”
Since the initial project, the research partnership between UTS and the RMS has expanded. The team has developed an intelligent climbing robot known as CROC, inspired by the movement of an inchworm. The machine can climb vertical steel walls, avoid obstacles and pivot through small spaces inside bridges and other steel structures such as ship hulls and oil rigs.
Along the way, it can collect and record inspection data and compare it with data from previous visits. The robot has been deployed to inspect spaces that haven’t been examined for many years due to worker safety concerns, improving the overall quality of bridge maintenance.
The team has also perfected two autonomous underwater robots for cleaning and inspection of bridge pylons, replacing a system that required potentially risky manual inspections.
The robotics knowledge developed through this partnership has won 10 research and engineering excellence awards at international, national and state levels, and secured one US and one Australian patent. UTS is now positioned as a world leader in the field of infrastructure robotics.
The next stage currently mapped out for the collaboration – deployment of a four-legged robot for abrasive-blasting, vacuuming and painting interior surfaces of the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge arches – is scheduled for July next year.
Research team
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Director, UTS Robotics and Distinguished Professor, School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
Research centre
- Centre for Autonomous Systems
Funded by
- NSW Roads and Maritime Services
- Australian Research Council Linkage grant
- Sabre Autonomous Solutions
Partners
- Roads and Maritime Services
- Sabre Autonomous Solutions
