Innovative Road Maintenance: Monash Engineers Unveil Smarter Method for Mapping and Solving Pothole Issues
In the bustling city of Melbourne, Australia, researchers at Monash University have developed an innovative solution to improve road maintenance and efficiency. Led by Dr Yihai Fang, the team has created a system that uses smartphones to monitor road conditions, offering a cheaper and quicker alternative to traditional road surveys.
The system relies on drivers' smartphones to feed footage and motion data into an app. The app, equipped with deep-learning models, detects roughness and bumps in the road, building a live map of road health.
In an initial trial, approximately 25 vehicles were fitted with smartphones and driven across Melbourne roads for two months. The study demonstrated that phone sensors, when supported by machine learning, could reliably capture road roughness data across varying environments. The team has also tested crowdsourcing, with 22 student drivers sharing smartphone data to strengthen the system.
Dr Fang stated that the more data collected from different vehicles, phones, and road conditions, the stronger the system becomes. The system could help identify potholes and deteriorating road surfaces in real time, making road monitoring more responsive and spotting problems earlier.
This development could significantly reduce the cost of costly repairs by spotting problems earlier. Australia spends around $15.8 billion annually on roads, with about half dedicated to maintenance and renewal. The system could help governments direct spending more efficiently, providing valuable data between inspections.
Moreover, the system could be more effective in responding to climate change and extreme weather putting additional strain on road networks. Expanding the project with road authorities could deliver a city-wide road condition map, making road maintenance more proactive and efficient.
Monash researchers suggest that affordable smartphone tools could complement official surveys, providing a valuable tool in the quest for safer and more efficient roads. Traditional road surveys are expensive to run and are typically only deployed once or twice a year. This new system, however, could offer a continuous stream of data, ensuring that road conditions are monitored effectively and in real time.
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