Vehicle-Mounted Laser Profilometry for Small Road Defect Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current techniques for identifying road defects, such as potholes, are inadequate in detecting small defects and require manual reporting, leading to delayed repairs and increased damage to vehicles and infrastructure costs.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus mounted on a vehicle that uses a laser profilometer and other sensors to capture high-resolution data on the roadway surface in real-time, transmitting it to a remote server for analysis, enabling automated defect identification and reporting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual reporting by public members is used to identify potholes, then human judgment can be applied, but smaller potholes and defects are easily missed or not reported
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual visual inspection by public members with an automated optical sensing system. A camera mounted on a vehicle captures images of the roadway surface, and image processing algorithms automatically detect and identify road defects including small potholes, cracks, and other surface irregularities that would be missed by human observers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates visual copies (images) of the roadway surface through camera capture, allowing detailed analysis of road conditions without requiring physical presence or manual inspection. These image copies enable repeated analysis and automated defect identification, preserving information about small defects that would otherwise be lost.
2Extent of automation
If lidar devices are used for road condition analysis, then automated data collection is achieved, but small road defects cannot be detected with sufficient resolution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes lidar technology with an optical camera-based imaging system. The camera captures high-resolution visual images of the roadway surface, allowing detection of small defects through image analysis rather than laser ranging. This optical approach provides superior surface detail resolution compared to lidar's depth-mapping capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using lidar's depth dimension (range mapping), the system transitions to the optical intensity and spatial resolution dimension captured by camera images. This dimensional shift from 3D point cloud data to 2D high-resolution imagery enables better visualization and detection of surface defects while maintaining automated operation.
3Productivity
If lidar is used while a vehicle is moving at speed, then data collection efficiency increases, but vibration reduces measurement accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces lidar's laser ranging mechanism with a camera-based optical imaging system. Camera imaging is inherently more robust to vehicle vibrations at speed compared to lidar's precise laser timing and positioning requirements. The optical system captures images that can be processed to identify defects even when the vehicle is moving rapidly, maintaining both productivity and precision.
4Strength
If deeper potholes are repaired, then vehicle damage cost increases, but repair cost also increases with depth
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection and classification of road defects before they progress to severe damage. By identifying small potholes and surface defects early through automated image analysis, the system enables proactive repair scheduling that prevents minor defects from developing into deep potholes requiring expensive repairs and causing vehicle damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a feedback loop where detected defects are automatically reported, classified by severity, and routed to appropriate repair workflows. This continuous monitoring and reporting mechanism provides feedback on road condition trends, enabling optimized resource allocation for repairs based on actual defect prevalence and severity rather than reactive responses to severe incidents.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables real-time detection and reporting of road defects, improving repair efficiency and reducing vehicle and infrastructure damage by identifying small defects that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Implementation Method 1
a first sensor (which may comprise a laser profilometer)
Implementation Method 2
laser profilometer and other sensors to capture high-resolution data on the roadway surface
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus (100) for capturing information on roadway surfaces (10) and a server (200) configured to analyse that data. The apparatus (100) comprises a mount (102) to attach the apparatus (100) to a vehicle (20), a set of sensors (104) configured to capture data relating to the roadway surface (10) proximate to the vehicle (20) during locomotion of the vehicle (20), and a communicator (120) configured to transmit the captured data relating to the roadway surface (10) to the server (200), via a telecommunications network, while the vehicle (20) is in operation. The first sensor comprises a laser profilometer comprising a scanning laser (114) and an image sensor (116), and wherein the data relating to the roadway surface (10) includes laser profilometry data of the roadway surface (10).