Abstract
Robotic drilling is the basic process for the non-destructive rehabilitation (NDR) system in the Automated Non-destructive
Evaluation and Rehabilitation System (ANDERS) for bridge decks. In this paper, we present a study
and testing of a concrete drilling process that is used for robotic drilling process for bridge decks repair. We first
review the ANDERS and NDR design. Then we present the experimental setup for the drilling process study.
A set of testing experiments are performed considering drilling process parameters such as drill bit size, drill
rotating speed, drill thrust force and types of concrete composites. Based on the experiments and analysis, we
identify and find that the optimal set of drilling process parameters for the ANDERS application is 1/4-inch bit
size, drill rotational speed of 1500 rpm and thrust force around 35 lbs. We also demonstrate that the monitoring
of drill feeding displacement and thrust force cannot be used to detect and identify the cracks in bridge decks.