Seoul seeks robots, drones to inspect Han River bridges

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is seeking robot and drone technologies to strengthen safety inspections of bridge sections that human inspectors have difficulty reaching.

The city announced Tuesday it is accepting open applications through Aug. 7 for "unmanned safety inspection technologies" — including robots, drones and data analytics systems — to address blind spots in bridge safety checks.

The city plans to build an unmanned inspection system capable of reaching areas human inspectors cannot easily access, improving the precision of safety management while also protecting the inspectors themselves.

The city said narrow, enclosed spaces within bridge structures and bridge cables have long been difficult for people to enter directly, limiting what manual visual inspections can detect in terms of hairline cracks or internal structural damage.

At Seongsandaegyo, for example, some interior spaces are only 1.2 meters high and 1 meter wide, forcing inspectors to crouch or crawl. At the Olympic Bridge, the main tower stands 88 meters tall, requiring inspectors to climb to significant heights to check cable conditions.

Conventional methods such as visual inspection have also fallen short in clearly detecting hairline cracks or the extent of internal structural damage.

In response, the city is launching a competition for innovative technologies suited to precision inspections. The call is open to all advanced technologies and products applicable to an unmanned safety inspection system.

Any company or institution — regardless of location — holding relevant new technologies or products in areas such as robotics, drones, sensors, non-destructive testing or data analytics is eligible to apply.

The city will form a selection committee of outside experts to conduct a comprehensive evaluation through technology presentations and demonstrations, initially selecting about three technologies.

The selected technologies will then undergo field validation on actual Han River bridges — including Seongsandaegyo and the Olympic Bridge — over roughly three months from September through December.

The city plans to carry out a final evaluation at year's end based on verification indicators for each technology. Those proven reliable, accurate and effective will be piloted in Han River bridge safety inspections and diagnostic services starting next year.

Further details about the application process are available on the Seoul Metropolitan Government's website, and inquiries can be directed to the city's Disaster and Safety Policy Division by phone.

"Technologies that demonstrate strong performance will be progressively applied to major infrastructure facilities, allowing us to lead the way in building an unmanned safety management system," said Choi Jin-seok, head of the city's Disaster and Safety Bureau.