Eye in the Sky: UTA Inquiry Magazine

Spring 2018

Inquiry Magazine Archive

Fall 2017: Building Livability

UTA researchers are creating a more sustainable, affordable North Texas for the future.
Winter 2016: Energy Evolution

From carbon dioxide conversion to landfill mining, researchers at UTA are seeking viable alternative energy options.
Spring 2016: Premium Blend

Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.
Fall 2015: Collision Course

Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.
Spring 2015: Almost Human

Model systems like pigeons can help illuminate our own evolutionary and genomic history.
Fall 2014: Small Wonder

UT Arlington's tiny windmills are bringing renewable energy to a whole new scale.
Winter 2014: Overdue for an Overhaul

The stability of our highways, pipelines, and even manholes is reaching a breaking point.
2012: Mystery solved?

Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.
2011: Boosting brain power

UT Arlington researchers unlock clues to the human body’s most mysterious and complex organ.
2010: Powered by genetics

UT Arlington researchers probe the hidden world of microbes in search of renewable energy sources.
2009: Winning the battle against pain

Wounded soldiers are benefiting from Robert Gatchel’s program that combines physical rehabilitation with treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
2007: Sensing a solution

Tiny sensors implanted in the body show promise in combating acid reflux disease, pain and other health problems.
2006:Semiconductors: The next generation
Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.
2005: Imaging is everything
Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.

Eye in the Sky

Professor using $770,000-plus TxDOT grant to inspect roads with drones

Using flying machines to inspect the ground? That's what a team of engineers from UTA, Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute is doing for the Texas Department of Transportation. The agency awarded the group a two-year, $770,909 grant for the project.

Led by civil engineering Professor Anand Puppala, the researchers are investigating highways and railroads through unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. They will determine how to use UAVs to perform remote sensing and collect high-definition photos while conducting pavement forensics. The team is focusing on the U.S. Highway 67 project site in Cleburne and U.S. Highway 82 near Bell in Fannin County. The UAVs also will collect data on the condition of railroad tracks and crossings in south-central Texas.

"It is safer and less expensive to use a UAV to check pavement performance characteristics because there is no need to close lanes and a person doesn't have to be on a roadway or active railroad tracks," Dr. Puppala says. "The high-resolution photos that we receive will provide as much information as an instrument on the pavement."

In addition to safety and cost, speed is another advantage to using UAVs instead of people.

"We will be able to transmit data from the UAV to a computer and process images very quickly," Puppala says. "We can then provide analysis within hours so TxDOT can make decisions immediately."

This research recently led to an additional NSF grant for remote surveys of debris in Houston after Hurricane Harvey.

Spring 2018

Inspection

Eye in the Sky

Professor using $770,000-plus TxDOT grant to inspect roads with drones

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Inquiry Magazine Archive

Inspection

Eye in the Sky

Professor using $770,000-plus TxDOT grant to inspect roads with drones

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