Non-destructive Evaluation Sensor Data Processing and Fusion for Automated Inspection of Civil Infrastructur

Data processing is an integral part of civil infrastructure inspection and enablesthe process to be efficient and easily interpreted. Civil infrastructures include bridges,parking garages, airport runways, and other structures that must remain in propercondition to endure daily use and ensure human safety. This thesis focuses on process-ing and fusion techniques for non-destructive evaluation sensors used in civil infras-tructure inspection. A key aspect of the infrastructure inspection process is determin-ing the condition of the reinforced concrete of the structure. An accurate method forautomatic rebar detection in reinforced concrete structures is presented. A methodfor optimizing a classifier to detect cracks in pictures of concrete surfaces is also pre-sented. In addition, a method to fuse the results from the rebar detection and crackdetection methods is presented. The fusion method reduces the total inspection timeby only performing the inspection using the necessary sensors. Experimental resultsare provided to validate the proposed methods.