Using images and artificial intelligence to inspect bridges

Amir Rezaie, CEO of SwissInspect. Alain Herzog / EPFL - EPFL startup SwissInspect has developed a novel bridge-inspection system that combines structural engineering with drone technology, artificial intelligence and computer vision. SwissInspect is the result of research at Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics Laboratory (EESD) in collaboration with Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC) on the image-based inspection and monitoring of structural elements.The company plans to test its system, which offers major advantages over visual inspection methods, on around 50 bridges in Switzerland. Switzerland's bridges are currently inspected every two to five years using conventional visual inspection. But SwissInspect hopes to change all that with its new technology, which provides more objective evaluations and could be applied to other types of structures like tunnels, dams and buildings. The company's approach combines structural engineering, computer vision, and artificial intelligence to make infrastructure inspections safer, more objective, and efficient. The startup has recently won a CHF 300,000 InnoSuisse grant to inspect around 50 bridges across Switzerland over a period of 18 months.