Evaluation of the Application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology on Damage Inspection of Reinforced Concrete Buildings

As for the damaged structures that suffered a destructive earthquake, damage inspection is essential to evaluate the seismic safety as well as assess the long-term performance for planning a suitable structural rehabilitation strategy for further service. However, the conventional inspection method by human hands is time-consuming, highly costly, and highly risky for inspectors' life safety in the fieldwork. To summarise the current situation for structural damage inspection and explore the future potentials of newly-developed technology in this field, the application and usage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are commonly known as drones have been reviewed and evaluated herein. Presented in this study is the basic concept of the UAV-based damage inspection, in which drones are employed as useful tools to inspect and monitor the damaged condition of buildings by collecting photography data. Besides, a conceptual comparison with the conventional approach is consequently given for understanding the advantages and limitations of theUAV-based damage inspection approach. Also, discussions composing of instructions, recommendations, existing challenges, and future directions to address the UAV-based damage inspection approach into further practice are suggested.