US Patent 11774407 UAV-based acoustic technique for mapping defects in civil infrastructure

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are provided with hammers having contact surfaces to produce acoustic signals in structures to be inspected. By selecting a suitable flight path, the contact surface can be dragged across or tapped against the structure to produce acoustic signals indicative of structure condition. Acoustic detectors are coupled to the UAV to produce detected acoustic signals that can be stored, communicated, and/or processed to access to arbitrary structure surfaces, including bottom surfaces of bridge decks and to locate delaminations.