How Technology Will Improve Inspection and Maintenance of Streets

Irena Zhorov reports on an ongoing project by Christoph Mertz, a researcher with Carnegie Mellon University, who has built a computer program that uses photos to detect cracks in pavement. The hope is that the new technology will help cities inspect and maintain streets more efficiently.

Mertz's program "uses photos from the cameras installed in city vehicles — vehicles that would be making rounds in the city anyway, not requiring dedicated city employees’ time. The program breaks the pavement in each picture into a grid and then the photos are combed digitally, using an algorithm, looking for texture. A newly paved road looks flat to the machine, but a road with cracks in it will have texture. Then it calculates how much of the given surface is covered by cracks and scores the road’s condition."

The article includes a lot more information about how the current practice of street maintenance compares to the potential of the program.