Summary of Webinar: Transforming Structural health monitoring with Smart Robotics
Summary of Webinar
Transforming Structural health monitoring with Smart Robotics
On September 16 (9:00 a.m., GMT+8), Prof. Yuguang Fu hosted a webinar on “Transforming Structural Health Monitoring with Smart Robotics,” which attracted 75 participants for a two-hour session. We were honored to welcome Prof. Qingzhao Kong from Tongji University, China, and Prof. Mustafa Gül from the University of Alberta, Canada, who shared their latest research and insights on robotic inspection of individual structures and city-scale infrastructure monitoring through crowdsensing.
Prof. Kong delivered a talk titled “Wall-Climbing Robot with Multimodal Sensory Fusion for Damage Detection of Civil Infrastructure.” He introduced a wall-climbing robotic system developed by his research team for the inspection of elevated façades and other difficult-to-access structural surfaces. The system enables the detection of surface defects, interface debonding, and internal defects. He further highlighted several key sensing technologies, i.e., visual and acoustic sensing, as well as ultrasonic sensing, and discussed advanced algorithms developed to improve the accuracy and robustness of damage detection, particularly for small or subtle defects that can be challenging to identify through conventional drone-based visual inspection. The technology has progressed beyond academic research and has been commercialized through a start-up founded by his students.
Prof. Gül presented “Crowdsensing-Based Monitoring of Built and Natural Environments (CoMBiNE),” highlighting the team’s long-term efforts to develop scalable mobile sensing approaches. Applications included drive-by bridge assessment using smartphones and in-vehicle sensors, AI-powered inspection of pavements and roadside assets, railway ride-quality monitoring, and crowdsensing-based assessment of wildfire risks at wildland–urban interfaces and along railway corridors. He discussed how diverse mobile sensing platforms can substantially expand the spatial coverage of infrastructure monitoring while addressing challenges associated with measurement noise, platform inconsistency, and varying environmental conditions. The broader vision of CoMBiNE is to establish a distributed and interconnected sensing ecosystem that complements conventional inspection practices, reduces data-collection costs, and improves our understanding of the interdependencies between built and natural environments.
The inspiring talks sparked a vibrant panel discussion on how smart robotics could reshape the next generation of structural health monitoring (SHM). We further explored the emerging roles of humanoid robots, underwater robots, and nano-drones in SHM, highlighting opportunities to extend sensing and inspection into complex, hazardous, and difficult-to-access environments. Together, these discussions illustrated an exciting transition toward more scalable, autonomous, and intelligent approaches to inspecting, monitoring, and understanding civil infrastructure.
Here is a link to the recording https://psu.zoom.us/rec/share/W6v2kD7eJKtnAWYIPRID6_eRVSpEHx0ploqpfqr-yRfueB2L1ntsdPjlrVnL2QOK.0Ra0L4Hj-1O4rn8k