Collins Engineers is working with the Minnesota Dept. of Transportation on the restoration of the James J. Hill Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. The 19th-century masonry structure is due for repairs, and Collins has been using Microsoft HoloLens headsets with software from Bentley Systems to speed inspection work during the design phase. “The HoloLens gives us that sense of scale we only get in the field,” says Barritt Lovelace, director of UAS, AI and reality modeling for Collins Engineers. “When looking at a computer screen you can zoom in, but it doesn’t feel like the bridge is in the field. With HoloLens it is different.”
桥梁检查一直是危险的，耗时的工作，但是对于评估结构的状况，没有什么比那样了。Bentley混合现实工作流程旨在弥合盯着照片和现场的差距。工作流程采用高分辨率的无人机照片，并将其缝合到一个“现实网格” 3D模型中，该模型由数千万或数亿个多边形组成。本特利系统的道路和铁路资产管理副总裁Dan Vogen说，该网格包含的信息远远超过了常规3D模型中的信息。“它具有通过现实网格传达的所有当前条件。”
可以在计算机或平板电脑上查看现实网格，但是与云连接的HoloLens提供了不同的观点。在那里，可以在缩放的桌面视图或1：1比例尺上查看桥梁，让工程师靠近并以高分辨率查看结构的每一英寸。然后，工程师可以添加注释，执行测量并突出潜在的问题领域。
Lovelace说：“对我来说，将检查笔记放在模型上的最有影响力的事情与传统笔记相比，您不再需要描述缺陷在哪里。”“它肯定会加快流程，并允许我们提供MN点更好的数据。”尽管HoloLens检查并不是要替换面对面的检查，但Lovelace表示，它减少了检查桥梁所需的旅行数量，并允许其他城市的工程师帮助维修的设计工作，而无需前往明尼阿波利斯。他说：“我们没有预算可以一直派我们想要的所有人。”“但是，如果芝加哥的某人想帮助Cofferdams的设计，他们可以在霍洛伦斯看模型。”
Hololens Bridge检查工作流程目前是Bentley资产系统系统的一部分，现实网格与现有结构保持的数字双胞胎有关。Vogen说，这是数字双胞胎方法的自然下一步。他说：“我们被告知我们的数字双胞胎是寻找问题的解决方案。”“但是这是我们真正可以解决的问题。”他补充说，桥梁检查只是该工作流程的第一个应用程序，本特利已经在探索HoloLens作为其他难以访问的结构的检查工具，包括通信塔和电气实用程序传输塔。
State Bridge Inspector Sees Promise in Drones, HoloLens
The Bentley HoloLens workflow has also drawn the attention of MnDOT, which has been investing in drones for bridge inspection over the last few years. "We're now we’re at the point where we have these drones now, we are going to use them for inspection. So we have the data, how do we make it useful?" says Jennifer L. Wells, MnDOT state bridge inspection engineer. "Now along comes Bentley and Microsoft, and we can share this data across different entities in MnDOT."
Wells has spearheaded the effort to bring drones into MnDOT's bridge inspection regime, and has worked with Collins Engineers in recent months to refine Bentley's HoloLens workflows.MnDOT has policies in place governing drone flights for bridge inspectionsto comply with FAA regulations, and Wells says a version of this workflow could become a standard practice for bridge inspections in the state someday. "[Drones] are another tool in our toolkit," she says. "It can save a lot of time and money in terms of lane closures."
尽管MNDOT和其他州点可能有进行检查的资源，但威尔斯指出，许多当地市政当局在检查其司法管辖区的所有桥梁和交叉处都有更艰难的时间。“当是时候关闭桥梁时，我们已经看到了一些范围爬行，因为当地机构没有提前（检查桥）获得他们需要的访问权限。”威尔斯说，在无人机上花费几千美元并获得FAA认证为无人机飞行员是较小代理商通过检查工作负担更快的一种方式。
But new technologies like reality meshes built from drone captures are only a part of the broader bridge-inspection process, she cautions. "It gives us a baseline to show changes over time, and show different departments within MnDOT," says Wells. "It's more of a first-line discussion creator—a better way than showing a picture from my smartphone to my load-rating engineer and asking 'can you draw up a load rating based on this?'" Working in a reality-mesh-based 3D model can solve a lot of those communication problems upfront, she says.
With Collins Engineers' work on the Stone Arch bridge moving along, Wells adds that work has already begun on the next project, building out drone-captured reality meshes of the Blatnik Bridge, a nearly 60-year-old through-arch bridge that connects Duluth, Minn. to Superior, Wis. Wells says that she expects the drone captures and the new HoloLens workflow will help speed along inspection work on the aging crossing.
