Baidu adds intelligent "brain" to tunnel inspection robots

my country's highway tunnel construction is developing rapidly with a large area of ​​highways, and the pressure on tunnel management and maintenance is increasing. The geological conditions of the mountains through which highway tunnels pass are complex and changeable, and coupled with the tunnel construction technology and operation level, the problem of highway tunnel diseases is becoming increasingly prominent, and the problems of tunnel leakage, frost damage, traffic accidents, etc. that cannot be repaired in time are becoming more and more obvious.

Tunnel infrastructure issues are an important guarantee for driving safety. Irregular and untimely handling of tunnel problems may even lead to safety accidents. Due to the many major accidents that have occurred in highway tunnels in recent years, the public has also paid increasing attention to the daily operation and inspection of traffic tunnels.

Tunnel high-speed inspection robots have emerged as the times require. They are intelligent devices that can move and make decisions autonomously. They are usually equipped with various sensors and cameras to monitor the surrounding environment and equipment status in real time. Compared with traditional manual inspections, high-speed inspection robots have the advantages of high efficiency, high precision, and high reliability.

For a long time, my country has been mainly relying on manual inspection for tunnels, which requires sending a large amount of manpower and material resources to inspect tunnels at regular intervals, and establishing a long-term working mechanism. However, the tunnel is humid and hot, and the five-story height requires frequent climbing by inspectors. Even in winter, it is still very hot inside, and workers need to climb up and down. It takes at least three hours for inspectors to complete a round-trip inspection.

For traditional inspection, a high-altitude vehicle is needed to carry inspectors to a high place. The vehicle moves and stops at a very slow speed, and inspectors observe the tunnel lining with their naked eyes, take pictures of the defects, and measure and record the location, shape, size and other data of the defects.

Such work efficiency is too low, the operation is too complicated, the accuracy is relatively low, and it is difficult to achieve the required safety level. Since the inspection vehicles move slowly and the manpower gathers on the tunnel road, it is bound to lead to the closure of relevant sections before the inspection, which inevitably leads to traffic congestion and greatly increases the traffic burden on the highway.

Under such circumstances, my country has manufactured a high-speed tunnel inspection robot. This robot integrates artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, robots and other advanced technologies to develop an intelligent highway tunnel inspection robot, which can effectively solve the problems of high highway tunnel maintenance costs, low operating efficiency, and difficult maintenance of hidden projects.

The intelligent inspection robot for highway tunnels consists of a robot body, a sensor system, a monitoring system, a positioning system, an alarm system, and a fire extinguishing system. It does not occupy ground space and can obtain the operating status information inside the tunnel uninterruptedly, in real time, and continuously, evaluate the normal operating health of the tunnel, and detect and warn of abnormal critical points that endanger the safety of the tunnel in advance, providing a basis and guidance for tunnel maintenance, upkeep, and management decisions.

With the support of the inspection robot, the human only needs to drag the mouse a few times in the background of the screen, and what the intelligent inspection robot "sees" in the corridor will be displayed in real time in the digital twin three-dimensional panoramic corridor map. The on-duty personnel have a clear grasp of the overall situation. It is simple to operate and easy to get started for employees. Especially in terms of model iteration and upgrading, there is no need for engineers who understand artificial intelligence technology. The on-duty personnel can do it themselves, completely "zero code" operation. For example, there are some scenarios that have not been encountered in previous training, and the platform will generate false alarms. The on-duty personnel in the dispatching room only need to correct the false alarm result by clicking the mouse, and then the model can be accumulated and precipitated, and self-iterated and optimized with the support of computing power.

The smart tunnel system can provide comprehensive tunnel traffic data and provide a scientific basis for urban traffic planning, so as to better plan urban traffic. As an important part of transportation, tunnels play an important role in carrying traffic flow, reducing road conflicts, and improving passenger experience. In the future, tunnel robots will continue to iterate the smart tunnel system, use technologies such as radar perception and edge computing, and combine the user needs of tunnel managers to develop customized solutions for user groups such as tunnel inspection, tunnel traffic management, and tunnel emergency, providing more accurate, efficient, and reliable technical support for tunnel management. We will continue to make new contributions to ensure urban traffic safety, improve travel efficiency, and optimize urban traffic operations.