Launched R&D business to support infrastructure restoration and establish maintenance technology bases in the Great East Japan Earthquake

National University Corporation Tohoku University (Aoba-ku, Sendai), Tohoku East Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. Tohoku Regional Head Office (Aoba-ku, Sendai), NEXCO-Engineering Tohoku Co., Ltd. (Aoba-ku, Sendai) and Reconstruction Technology Consultant (Aoba-ku, Sendai) ) Et al. will form a research body (consortium), and will jointly work on the business of IT infrastructure fusion support for infrastructure restoration in the disaster area and maintenance technology base for social infrastructure.

On February 27, the proposal for the research project was adopted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's "2011 R&D Project for Creating New Industries by Compensating Budget IT Fusion (Development of Industry-Academia-Government-IT IT Consortium Base)", We will start a business this year.

[Implementation system (consortium)]

[Business Overview]

Infrastructure specialists and IT specialists have know-how on infrastructure maintenance such as damage assessment of structures, prediction of deterioration, repair planning, etc., and IT know-how such as automatic collection and sharing of information, analysis of large-capacity information such as images. By constructing a new business model that fuses the above, we aim to support infrastructure restoration in the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, establish and deploy maintenance technology bases, and aim at business development based on the results of this business.

◯ Support for infrastructure restoration in disaster areas

Focusing on restoration support and inspection work of structures, utilizing GPS etc., efficiently recording location information in inspection information, utilizing image processing technology, etc. to improve efficiency of damage determination and edit/record determination results We will support the early restoration of the infrastructure by improving the system and the database that stores the state of the structure.

◯Form and develop maintenance technology bases

In addition to accumulating valuable cases and experiences, such as the phenomena occurring in the disaster area and their countermeasures, and archiving them as teaching materials for engineers, the national university corporation Tohoku University plays a central role in cooperating with related organizations in the Tohoku region. We will establish a maintenance technology base by developing a system for sharing know-how and data, accumulating and enhancing knowledge from various fields, and constructing a system that can be utilized.

◯ Business development centered on this business

The above results not only contribute significantly to infrastructure restoration and reconstruction support in the Tohoku region, but the accumulated know-how can also be used for daily infrastructure maintenance and future disasters. It is promising as a new business in the field of infrastructure maintenance, where the market is expected to Large. With a view to such a market, the Research Center plans to develop the business centering on the research and development results of this project.

[Operation image]

In this project, the system to be developed will be actually operated and demonstrated in the disaster area. The image of operation is shown below.

[Business background]

(1) Necessity of efficient response for infrastructure restoration in the Great East Japan Earthquake area

The infrastructure of the disaster-stricken area is in a situation where facilities have been rapidly deteriorated or damaged due to the external force of an earthquake or tsunami, and it is essential to accurately understand the damage situation and take appropriate countermeasures. For example, although the damage was minor immediately after the earthquake, the second half of the earthquake passed, and the corrosion of bridge rebars caused by seawater inundation due to the tsunami progressed, the inundation area Large due to ground subsidence, and roads caused by typhoon heavy rain. In some cases, damage has Large over time, such as the flow of embankment material. Early detection and response to damage are important for ensuring the safety of infrastructure, but the targets are widespread and require technical skills to make decisions, so countermeasures are not progressing in many areas and there are many problems. Especially in small-scale local governments, there is a strong demand for an efficient response that is both financially secure and cost-saving.

This project aims to improve the efficiency and accuracy of on-site inspection work, and it is possible to reduce costs through efficiency improvement.By introducing the development results to local governments, etc., the above problems can be solved. It is believed that you can contribute to.

(2) Rapidly aging infrastructure

Japan's infrastructure is aging rapidly. For example, the old bridge (50 years or more) is currently 12%, 20 years later it has increased to 48% (4 times), and the maintenance cost is currently about 5.4 trillion yen annually, It will increase to about 7.8 trillion yen in 20 years (1.4 times) (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism estimates). On the other hand, the number of engineers is expected to decrease rapidly, and the current number of 2.6 million will decrease to 2.1 million in 20 years (0.8 times) (MEXT estimate). In this way, maintaining technical capabilities, securing safety and reducing costs related to infrastructure maintenance are urgent issues for Japan. In addition, it is expected that these issues will become apparent in developing countries, which are rapidly developing infrastructure in recent years.

[Glossary]