The pioneers of infrastructure maintenance are two giants of two and a half tons each, perched one on each side on the Ponte San Giorgio in Genoa, the motorway viaduct that stands out over the Polcevera stream, where before that August 14 four years ago there was Morandi. They are two robots, each with a large arm that extends under the lower surface of the bridge deck, its belly, and controls it.
They were designed by Ferdinando Cannella, robotics from the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa who, for his work, has already won two prizes: second place at the European Robotics Forum in Rotterdam and the prize for the best industrial robotic application at Mecspe, the great Bologna exhibition of the manufacturing industry.
«These are awards that I share with all the organizations that have contributed to the result, as well as with the group I manage at IIT. Renzo Piano’s studio that designed the bridge, the Camozzi group of Brescia that built the robots on our project, Sda Engineering for the robot locomotion system, Ubisive for the human-machine software interface and the University Polytechnic of Marche for artificial intelligence ».
Was it a long job?
«It was a year and a team effort, of close collaboration between research and industry. I think the result is good for that very reason. It was not a top down project. My origins helped me. I grew up in the Marche where my grandparents produced bricks and my father as well. I have breathed factory air since I was a child. Then after graduating in mechanical engineering I did a doctorate in mechanical measurements in Italy and another in robotics at King’s College in London. In this work for the bridge I put everything together: measurement, robotics, industry ».
What do the two robots do?
“They are two beasts of two and a half tons each with an arm of eighteen meters that stretches under the bridge, to cover the entire width of thirty-six meters. Each arm, like a large photocopier, scans the belly of the bridge, while the robot proceeds on its guide, a sort of rail, along the entire kilometer of the viaduct, taking thirty-five thousand photographs. This allows us a punctual and repeated monitoring over time ».
Will entrusting the monitoring of infrastructures to robots become the rule?
«We can say that we have inaugurated a trend. After this work we were called for another four to five constructions on bridges, of different types and of various nature, new and old. We have also been contacted by Aashto, the US federal association representing the highway and transportation departments of the 50 American states. And in the calls for tenders for new infrastructures, the request for maintenance robots begins to appear ».