TOKYO -- Japan wants drones and artificial intelligence to inspect and maintain worn-down infrastructure, a science council's new guidelines showed Wednesday, as labor dwindles and the coming 2020 Olympics spur construction demand.
In Tokyo's vision, roads and bridges would be mounted with sensors that detect wear and tear, such as creaking, and drones would make regular flyby inspections. Information from those devices would feed into a trove of data on structures' repair history and management status.
