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Technical PresentationDigital Health Inspection of Concrete Bridge Structures in Coastal Areas with Wall-Climbing Robot and Computer Vision (DiHICS)
By
Dr Muhammad Ali Musarat
Date: Thursday, 20th November 2025
Time: 6.30 pm Complimentary refreshments will be served at 6:00 pm.
Location: The Embassy Hotel, Valletta.
Concrete infrastructure, including bridge structures in coastal areas, can experience faster deterioration, posing a threat to the users of the infrastructure. In order to ensure safety, infrastructures, including concrete bridges, need to be periodically inspected for defects and, more importantly, their changes from previous inspections. This process is labour-intensive and normally requires the closure of the infrastructure during these inspections. Therefore, digital automated techniques are desirable to reduce inspection times, avoid infrastructure closures, and reduce safety risks to inspection personnel. Wall-climbing robots provide a possible solution to automate the capture of imagery of the concrete structure. This data is then processed and analysed using computer vision and machine learning techniques to understand if there are new defects or if there are any changes to previously identified defects, such as cracks. The output is then mapped to a virtual reality environment through which surveyors can inspect the health of the bridge and evaluate risks.
Dr Muhammad Ali Musarat is a Civil Engineering researcher ranked among the Top 2% Scientists Elsevier/Stanford, 2024–2025 University ranking. With over 12 years of research and academic experience, he specialises in Sustainable Construction, Digital and Automated Construction, and AI-driven construction digitalisation. Dr Ali currently serves as a Research Support Officer III on the DiHICs Project at the Faculty for the Built Environment University of Malta, and formerly worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. He has authored 150+ peer-reviewed publications with an h-index of 42 and 5,000+ citations on Google Scholar. He sits on the Editorial Boards of various journals. Through the DiHICs Project, the University of Malta together with Zhejiang University are working towards novel solutions to automate inspections of concrete bridges near coastal areas to minimise inconvenience and costs while reducing inspection times and improving efficiency. The DiHICS Project received funding from the XJENZA Malta and the Ministry for Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MOST), through the SINO-MALTA Fund 2023 Call (Science and Technology Cooperation). The DiHICs Project is led by Professor Carl J Debono Faculty of ICT (Principal Investigator), Professor Ruben Paul Borg (Faculty for the Built Environment) and Dr. Dyan Seychell (Faculty of ICT), with the collaboration of Dr. Muhammad Ali Musarat and Dr. Vijay Prakash Research Support Officers III.
This is a free event open to the general public.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Embassy Valletta Hotel, 173, Strait Street,Valletta, Malta
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