Bridge Inspection

Inspecting hard-to-reach or dangerous areas safely is a major benefit of using drones. This scenario provides practical experience for those looking to perform professional bridge safety inspections.

Introduction

The Bridge Inspection scenario is designed to expose the pilot to flying with the intention of inspecting various parts of a bridge. In this tutorial we will walk you through how to identify cracks on the bridge, how to capture the cracks, and the differences between the learning modules.

Drone Roster

Module Breakdowns

Identifying Cracks and Grading

Each bridge module will have a certain number of cracks for the pilot to find and capture to receive credit. If the pilot captures all of the cracks, they will receive full credit. If the pilot only captures a couple of cracks, lands, and powers off the drone to end the module, they will be awarded partial credit for the cracks they did capture.

Here are a few examples of cracks you could find in the Bridge scenario.

Cracks can be found on the top and underneath the deck of the bridge and the sides and inner arches of the foundations/piers of the bridge.

Capturing Cracks

To capture a crack, align your drone so that the crack is in full view of the drone camera. By default, the capture button is P on the keyboard, the underside/right button of the FS-i6S controller, or the down button on the D-Pad on a gamepad. If you wish to change this configuration, you can do so in the Controller -> Mapping Menu in Zephyr.

Note: for cracks on the top deck of the bridge, you can successfully capture from a high altitude. For cracks on the underside of the deck and the sides and arches of the foundations/piers, you will need to be relatively close to the crack to successfully capture.

You have unlimited capture attempts for any given crack.

Free Flight

This is an ungraded scenario that allows the pilot to fly around the bridge scenario with no objectives. No cracks will be present in this module.

Bridge Module One

Find and capture an image of 5 bridge cracks with the camera. Cracks will be on the sides. In this module, cracks will only show up on the top of the deck and the sides of the foundations/piers.

Bridge Module Two

Find and capture an image of 5 bridge cracks with the camera. Cracks will be on the underside. In this module, cracks can appear on the underside of the deck as well as on the support arches/pillars.

Bridge Module Three

Find and capture an image of 5 bridge cracks with the camera. GPS signal will be unreliable. In this module, cracks can show up anywhere on the bridge. The drone's GPS will be unreliable, meaning it will switch from GPS to Atti mode intermittently.

Bridge Module Four

Find and capture an image of 5 bridge cracks with the camera. GPS is unreliable and possible wind. In this module, cracks can show up anywhere on the bridge. The drone's GPS will be unreliable and random gusts of wind will be present.

Bridge Module Five

Find and capture an image of bridge cracks with the camera. Number of cracks is unknown. In this module, cracks can show up anywhere on the bridge. The drone's GPS will be unreliable and random gusts of wind will be present. The total number of cracks present is random to the pilot.