Infrastructure Maintenance, Renovation and Management

Outline
R&D Topics
List of R&D Themes
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Infrastructure Maintenance, Renovation and Management
PD (Program Director)
Yozo Fujino（Distinguished Professor, Institute of Advanced Sciences, Yokohama National University）

Biography
Yozo Fujino graduated from Department of Civil Engineering, at the University of Tokyo in 1972. After completing his Master's degree (Civil Engineering) at the University of Tokyo, he received the Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Waterloo in 1976. He joined the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo; the Institute of Structural Engineering at the University of Tsukuba; and Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Tokyo. In 1990, he was appointed as a professor of Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Tokyo. In 2014, he joined the Yokohama National University, and has served in his current position from October 2014. He is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo. His expertise includes structures, vibration control and monitoring of civil infrastructures with emphasis on bridges. He was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon of Honor from the Emperor of Japan in 2007, and the 2015 Hattori Hoko Award (The Hattori Hokokai Foundation), among others.

The Cross-Ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), in which the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI) plays the role of playmaker, has been established to realize scientific technology innovations. As a cross-ministerial and cross-field program, SIP will drive forward with the focus ranging from basic research to commercialization/industrialization. "Infrastructure maintenance, renovation and management" (hereinafter referred to as "SIP infrastructure") is one of the issues currently under the focus of the programs.
Civil infrastructures, such as roads, railways, harbors and airports, support our everyday life and social economic activities. Many of them, however, were built during the high economic growth period. As they get older, the increase in maintenance and repair expenditures, along with the possibility of a serious accident occurring during the service, become serious social issues. This program aims at preventing accidents and reducing the burden of maintenance by constructing a systematic infrastructure management that utilizes the most advanced information and robotics technologies.
Unlike mass-produced products, such as vehicles and laptop computers, infrastructures are single products that are designed, constructed, and manufactured individually. Initial conditions of infrastructures vary depending on the time and condition they were built . As a result, in addition to the difference in usage environment, the speed of infrastructure deterioration also varies. Some infrastructures that have been used for several tens of years may pose a higher risk of accident due to damage. To allow for an effective and efficient preventive maintenance management of infrastructures and to establish a safe and secure infrastructure system, it is therefore crucial to have technologies that can precisely diagnose and take appropriate measures by closely examining large number of infrastructures individually on-site. It is also essential to minimize the hazards and risks associated with manual handling in the workplace. For infrastructure management run by local governments, cost reduction is also a particularly important viewpoint. Currently, infrastructures are being constructed across Asia; however, maintenance has already become a big issue. "SIP infrastructure" aims at introducing new exciting advanced technologies into the range of infrastructure management technologies. Specific examples include the following: support from or replacement with robots for infrastructure inspection; on-site damage detection inside concrete members; inspection of tunnels and bridges by mobile sensors that do not require traffic control; technologies to aerially detect damage/deformation of river levees, dams, and harbors; highly accurate deterioration estimation technology for concrete; developing ultra-high durable repair materials; efficient infrastructure management technology using big data processing; and artificial intelligence.
Japan's infrastructure stock is estimated to be over 800 trillion yen. Infrastructures should function for several decades. Our responsibility to the future is to create an infrastructure information platform and to pass on the infrastructures that can be used safely with a minimum maintenance burden to the next generation. The objective of "SIP infrastructure" is to establish the system and we will work hard to achieve it.

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1. Outline

In Japan, amid the aging of infrastructures, emerging risk of a serious accident such as the Sasago tunnel accident in 2012, and the increase in maintenance and repair expenditures are topics of concern. Systematic infrastructure management utilizing new technologies is essential both for preventing accidents based on preventive maintenance system and minimizing life cycle cost of infrastructures under the conditions of the tight financial grounds and the decreasing number of skilled engineers. Particularly, technologies that utilize the world's most advanced ICRT^* are expected to create new business opportunities in the existing infrastructure maintenance market and to offer business expansion opportunities into Asian countries that face similar problems
To achieve this, we will improve the standard of maintenance by using low-cost preventive maintenance while stressing the necessity to match the needs of infrastructure maintenance with the seeds of technical development, and developing new technologies into more attractive technologies that can be used on-site. By achieving this, we aim at contributing to regional revitalization, as well as maintaining the important internal infrastructures to high standard while backing up a variety of regional economic activities. Furthermore, we will create an attractive and ongoing maintenance market and build a base for overseas expansion based on successful regional examples.
*ICRT： ICT（ Information and Communication Technology）＋ IRT（ Information and Robot Technology)