Continuously monitoring the condition of critical infrastructure is a mammoth task. Modern technical methods aim to move away from traditional inspection and response to predictive monitoring, in which damage developments are continuously recorded and predicted.

The Institutes of Geodesy and Photogrammetry (IGP) and Flight Guidance (IFF) at the Technical University of Braunschweig are working closely together to develop systems that can reliably and automatically collect the necessary condition data. They use high-resolution, overlapping photographs of the surface of the structures and automatically extract information about existing damage from them. Drones are a suitable tool for reliably achieving the required perspectives.