BUSCAN

Buses form the backbone of regional and urban public transport in the Netherlands, carrying millions of
passengers daily and serving as a sustainable alternative to private cars. With the country’s strong commitment
to reducing emissions and improving mobility, bus fleets are increasingly transitioning towards electric and
autonomous models. This transition raises new demands on maintenance, safety, and inspection practices to
ensure operational reliability and passenger trust. From an industrial perspective, transport operators face
rising costs and operational challenges due to the scale of fleets, the frequency of inspections, and the
complexity of maintaining modern vehicles. Therefore, innovative inspection technologies are crucial to
improve efficiency, reduce downtime, and support the digital transformation of the Dutch public transport
sector.
Drones are increasingly deployed across industrial domains as “flying eyes and hands” in warehouses,
greenhouses, factories, barns, and infrastructure sites. Applications include surveillance, data collection,
logistics, and even emergency response such as firefighting. This is because they can capture data quickly,
access hard-to-reach areas, and reduce the risks associated with manual work. These advantages make
drones a promising platform for transforming bus inspection and enabling full surveys of exteriors, including
roofs and rear panels that are challenging to assess manually.
BUSCAN is built on the direct interests and requests of our industrial partners to conduct a proof-of concept study on the possibility to combine advanced computer vision technologies with drone-based data acquisition to scan buses externally and deliver high-quality and geometrically consistent
images. These outcomes will provide the groundwork for follow-up projects on automated defect detection,
cleanliness assessment, and predictive maintenance, i.e., full autonomous inspection. Thus, BUSCAN
supports innovation in the public transport sector, contributes to enabling technologies for autonomous
systems, advances the broader field of applied drone technologies and aims to increase human life safety and
quality.