Structural Instrumentation
The RAPID equipment portfolio includes a number of instrumentation systems that can be used to document damage sustained by structures as a result of natural hazard and anthropogenic events; commonly used systems include drone-based lidar, drone-based cameras and SfM software, terrestrial lidar, Applied Streetview, GigaPan Epic Pro V and Cannon 7D Mark II.
With NSF RAPID funding Auburn University faculty members Justin Marshall and David Roueche and UW faculty member Jeff Berman partnered with RAPID staff to collect data characterizing damage sustained by low-rise, large volume metal structures as a result of Hurricane Michael, which made landfall south of Panama City, Florida on October 10, 2014. In comparison with other types of structures, these buildings exhibited disproportionately high rates of severe damage and collapse and wind demand levels that were judged to be below design level. To collect their data, the research team used multiple still cameras (DJI Osmo, Insta360, Canon DSLR and Flir C3 Thermal Camper), a DJI Phantom equipped with a Zenmuse X5S Camera, Matrice 210 drones with X4S cameras, a Leica robotic total station (TS16I) and Maptek XR3 long-range laser (lidar) scanner. Figures show point clouds generated using SfM methods and image data collected using drone-based cameras.
