East Nippon Expressway Company Ltd. (NEXCO East) will establish the road management system applying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to monitor road conditions. It is developing an UAV carrying a small camera in cooperation with Canadian company Aeryon Labs Inc. Through ongoing demonstration for existing bridges, approaches toward practical use are being explored, targeting by the end of FY 2014.

NEXCO East has decided one of its important policies, “Smart Maintenance Highway (SMH) Plan,” which aims to upgrade road maintenance by mechanization and ICT application to monitoring. Development of UAV monitoring system is a part of the plan. The robot, flying with four propellers, is equipped with a camera shooting the subject in the air. A remote device sets the designated flight information, such as height and route, and the vehicle accordingly operates automatically. An auto pilot function spares operators from controlling the vehicle or adjusting its position against the wind. (2013/11/20)