3D Localization of Suspended and Tethered Drone for High-rise Bridge Inspection

Bridges are an essential component of the infrastructure that helps to ensure the safety of the traveling public and the continued profitability of economic operations over the long term. As a consequence of this, the current state of the bridge’s health must be taken into consideration, and bridge inspection is essential. This study utilizes the use of suspended and tethered drones for bridge inspection and introduces a 3D localization method during a bridge inspection. Also discussed in this paper are the components of the suspended and tethered drone used for localization. Using the length of the wire, force, and azimuth angle, the corresponding position of the drone is determined through neural network training. A regression analysis was done, and regression values of 0.98401, 0.98087, and 0.98339 were obtained. The actual position of the drone and the predicted position were compared. A minimum of 0% error and a maximum of 10% error were recorded based on the 20-sample data.