[PANEL DISCUSSION] Leveraging digital twins for remote bridge inspections

One of the biggest challenges for transportation agencies is how to conduct accurate, timely, and safe bridge inspections. Traditional visual inspections that take place on site are labour intensive, can require expensive equipment, may present safety risks, and can be inaccurate and error-prone. Digital twins allow inspectors to immerse themselves in the model of a bridge structure without being physically on site. Transportation agencies can deploy UAVs to capture high resolution images of their bridges and use Bentley software to create precise digital twins. By conducting inspections using the digital twin of the asset, along with immersive inspection capabilities in Microsoft HoloLens 2, bridge inspectors can conduct up to 90% of the inspection from the office. This reduces the time in the field, making the overall inspection quicker, more efficient, safer, and can save 40% of inspection costs.