A Virtual Reality Environment for Developing and Testing Autonomous UAV-Based Structural Inspection

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with imaging and laser sensors have shown their benefits in structural health inspection due to their aerial mobility, low cost, and efficiency. However, UAV applications in practice are limited by their level of automation, and man-piloted operation dominates to date. With vehicle automation on the horizon, autonomous structural inspection systems via robotic vehicles have become a possibility. Nonetheless, significant challenges exist for testing and validating in a physical environment. This paper proposes a virtual reality framework for developing autonomous UAV-based structural health inspection systems. The framework, built atop a gaming engine, implements algorithmic virtual sensing and control of a UAV that flies virtually in a complex built environment. In this paper, we test this framework with a virtual UAV with an open-loop control approach for structural health inspection, including waypoint-based control and simultaneous localization and mapping. We further discuss its full potential as an aerial robotics learning and validation platform for developing advanced data-enabled structural-space exploration, optimal control, and damage assessment.