A portable low-cost system framework for automated road distress assessment

India, with over 4.1 million km road networks, has become the second largest road networked country in the world after the United States. However, often stretches of the existing road networks deteriorate and fall below the acceptable level required to serve the increasing Indian traffic and population. According to Indian guidelines, cracks, potholes, patches, and rutting are some type of road surface distresses whose evaluation is essential for developing repair and maintenance strategies to ensure a good and an effective road network. At present, the evaluation of these distresses are done manually by finding their location, number or occurrence per km, length (m), area (sq.m), extent of area (%), and/or classifying their types using traditional field inspection techniques or dedicated road survey vehicles. This is very expensive, time consuming and slows down road maintenance management. In this paper, a portable low cost system framework that uses omnipresent passenger vehicles, low end laptop, webcam and digital camera for automated road distress assessment is proposed. Using the proposed framework that is equipped with a webcam and digital camera, raw video clips of Indian highways are captured without any artificial lighting systems in normal daylight conditions. Then, the collected video clips are processed using a robust algorithm presented earlier by the authors for automated detection and measurement of potholes from road surface video clips. The results indicate that the proposed framework has a significant capability in detecting and assessing potholes automatically and efficiently. The information extracted using the proposed framework can be used for determining maintenance levels for Indian roads and taking further appropriate actions for repair and maintenance related issues in a short duration of time.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1790571
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from the publisher.
• Authors:
  • Lokeshwor, Huidrom
  • Das, Lalit K
  • Akoijam, Namita
• Publication Date: 2014-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 51-63
• Serial:
  • Indian Highways
  • Volume: 42
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: Indian Roads Congress
  • ISSN: 0376-7256

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automation; Digital cameras; Evaluation and assessment; Highway maintenance; Laptop computers; Pavement distress; Portable equipment; Potholes
• Geographic Terms: India
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Pavements; Vehicles and Equipment; I61: Equipment and Maintenance Methods;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01532422
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 31 2014 9:04AM