IIT – Hyderabad develops drone-based assessement system for buildings

The drone-based inspection comes in handy as the physical inspection of structures in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake is risky.

Hyderabad: The International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) – Hyderabad multidisciplinary research team has come up with a new drone – based inspection mechanism for assessing the structural stability of a building and its safety for occupancy-readiness in the aftermath of an earthquake. This new mechanism has been adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as a code of practice.

Without the need for the present practice of physical inspection by the Safety Assessment Inspectors, which is labour-intensive and time taking process, the building safety parameters including soil condition, architectural features and structural stability could be assessed with this new drone-based inspection.

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“Out of 32 parameters listed in the survey form ranging from the kind of soil and foundation conditions to the architectural features and elements, 11 parameters have been successfully captured by drones so far,” said Prof. Pradeep Ramancharla, previous head of the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre at IIIT-Hyderabad and current Director CSIR-Central Building Research Institute. The remaining parameters could be assessed by inspectors whilst in an office, with the help of images obtained via drone-survey, he said.

This survey-based standard has been officially adopted by the BIS as a code of practice (IS 18289: 2023), which will be used as part of a post-earthquake survey to determine if affected buildings can be occupied immediately or not.

The drone-based inspection comes in handy as the physical inspection of structures in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake is risky. “Besides, survey work is labour-intensive too. Using technology speeds up the process manifold, giving us a solution in 7-10 days, which is the need of the hour,” Prof. Pradeep said.

According to Bureau of Indian Standards CED Assistant Director Jitendra Kumar Chaudhary “The IS 18289:2023 Post-Earthquake Safety Assessment of Buildings guidelines will guide users to ensure whether a building having suffered an earthquake is safe for occupancy or not through rapid visual survey or detailed assessment. Also, it would help the practising engineers and structural consultants in making the decision for necessary repair or retrofit for strengthening the buildings which are assessed to be critical or unsafe and classified under the ‘red tagged’ category”.