DESDEMONA by INCIPICT

On March 18 has been signed the Grant Agreement n. 800687 – DEtection of Steel DEfects by Enhanced MONitoring and Automated procedure for self-inspection and maintenance — DESDEMONA – between the European Union and ‘the coordinator’ SAPIENZA University of Rome, and the following other beneficiaries

• Universidad de Castilla – la Mancha (UCLM)
• Universidade do Porto (UPORTO)
• Università di Pisa (UNIPI)
• Institut Francais des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l’Amenagement et des Reseaux (IFSTTAR)
• AIVIEWGROUP srl (AIVIEWGROUPl)
• Sixense Systems (SIXENSE)
• ECISA compania general de construcciones sa (ECISA)

The estimated eligible costs of the action are EUR 2,200,885.75 and the ‘maximum grant amount’ is EUR 1,320,531.45. Prof. Vincenzo Gattulli is the PI investigator and Coordinator of DESDEMONA. The project proposal has grown during the development of the research INCIPICT activities in the scientific area of structural monitoring.

DESDEMONA objective is the development of novel design methods, systems, procedure and technical solution, to integrate sensing and automation technologies for the purpose of self-inspection and self-monitoring of steel structures. The approach will lead to an increment of the service life of existing and new steel civil and industrial infrastructure and to a decrease in the cost associated to inspections, improving human activities performed in difficult conditions, safety and workers’ potential by the use of advanced tools. The research aims to expand beyond the current state-of-the-art new high-quality standard and practices for steel structure inspection and maintenance through the interrelated development of the following actions:

1. steel structure geometry and condition virtualization through data fusion of image processing, thermography and vibration measurements;
2. developing of procedure for steel defect detection by robotic and automatic systems such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and ground mobile robots
3. embedding sensor systems to revalorize and transform steel elements and structures into self-diagnostic (smart) elements and materials even through nanotechnologies,realizing an experimental lab-based apparatus and a series of case studies inspected by intelligent and robotic systems.

The project outcome will have an impact on the reduction of the cost of steel structures inspection and maintenance and on the increase of user safety and comfort in industrial and civil environment. The proposal with a multidisciplinary approach fulfils the objectives of the Strategic Research Agenda of the European Steel Technology Platform.