COLEGIO DE MONTALBAN

Kasiglahan Village, San Jose, Rodriguez, Rizal

INSTITUTE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Department of Computer Engineering

Propose Title:

Development of Pothole Detection and Filler

Using Arduino Mega 2560

Developers:

Caronan, Vera mae M.

Cangayao, Jessica S.

Legaspi, Jade Kevin S.

Sanchez, Jefferson P.

Oquias Wilmar A.

Submitted To:

Engr. Rogel C. Jumawan

Thesis Coordina2018
 Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

This chapter represents the Background of the Study, Technical

Specification, General and Specific problem and Objectives, Significance of the

Study, Scope and Limitation.

Introduction

Pavement distresses accumulate as asphalt pavements age and traffic

pounds them. If timely maintenance isn’t performed, distresses are compounded.

Cracks become potholes and potholes become craters. The cost of addressing

minor holes is much lesser than addressing major cracks on the road. We have

to do road maintenance when the roads are in fair to good condition, rather than

waiting until they are in poor condition. The road of San Isidro along Manila hills

to San Jose highway is always in not good condition because of the road lack

maintenance they are just Addressing road repair if they can see that it has a

major deficiencies which Remedy for these road problem such as fixing large

potholes or laying new road will cost about 10 to 20 times more than the cost of

resealing small potholes.

Quarrying is still present here in Rodriguez which is this is one of the

reason why the roads here is always in poor condition. Everyday numbers of

trucks are travelling along the roads of San Isidro and if you will just observe the

roads are getting worst everyday. Potholes become cracks and cracks become

craters. The local government conducting a repair but it can cost thousands and
road repair can cause major traffic, and this happened for how many times

before and no one wants to be stuck in traffic. So We the student of Colegio De

Montalban and as a concern Citizen too, we would like to develop and design a

device that can be a great help in maintaining the road condition of our highways

by filling the potholes while it is still small. The prime motivation behind

developing this device is too lessen the cost of road repair and to have a smooth

travel and lastly to lessen the incidents happening in the road because of the bad

condition of highways. And because this is Just for Study purposes only we will

use cement instead of asphalt because it will be complicated if we will use

asphalt but we are open to the recommendations and upgrading of our device

and this will be possible Using Arduino Mega 2650 and Ultrasonic Sensor to

detect potholes.

Background of the Study

Vehicular traffic has been rapidly growing over the recent years with more

privately owned vehicles taking to the streets each day. Today, trucks weigh

significantly more than ever before and are capable of carrying much larger

payloads. The situation is further exacerbated by the decline of railroads. These

factors in conjunction with inclement weather result in a major challenge that

transportation departments throughout the country face – road damage in the

form of potholes. Potholes are not only the cause of significant damage to vehicle

suspension systems but may, in severe cases, result in serious accidents and

permanent injury. Year round pothole repairs are also a major reason for the

depletion of state funds. The United States alone spends billions of dollars every
year on pavement maintenance. Thus there is an impending need for pothole

repair techniques that are cost effective as well as long lasting.

Potholes causes and repair methodology “A pothole is any pavement

defect involving the surface or the surface and base, to the extent that it causes

significant noticeable impact on vehicle tires and vehicle handling. All potholes

are the result of the interaction of water and traffic on pavement. Most are found

on local road and street systems: 80% of the nation’s roads are local roads and

are more apt to have “just grown” rather than being planned from the start and

are much more likely to have water, gas and other utilities underneath.

Pothole formation The development of potholes is due to the simultaneous

presence of two factors, water and traffic. These factors may cause potholes in

two basic ways. Fatigue failure occurs due to excessive flexing of the pavement.

Water due to melting snow, rainfall, or bad drainage weakens the soil below the

pavement. In this weakened condition, traffic on the pavement causes the

pavement to start flexing. This flexing eventually leads to cracks followed by

breakage. Thinner pavements are more prone to this type of potholing.

What is Potholes? Potholes are foe to every driver, property owner, and

pedestrian alike. Not only can they cause damage to our vehicles, they can

reduce property value, compromise company profit, and even pose safety

hazards. The short message here is that potholes are no good and should be

repaired as soon as possible. In most cases, pothole repair is not a

recommended “do-it-yourself” project. The cycle of contracting and expanding in

the pavement causes it to weaken overtime. And with ongoing traffic and

inclement weather, the vulnerable pavement will begin to wear away, eventually

collapsing and forming a hole. Pavement distresses accumulate as asphalt

pavements age and traffic pounds them. If timely maintenance isn’t performed,

distresses are compounded. Cracks become potholes and potholes become

craters. A Pothole is a structural failure in a road surface, usually asphalt

pavement, due to water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over

the affected area. Water first weakens the underlying soil; traffic then fatigues

and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the affected area.” At first it

starts with a crack and if the cracks becomes worsen which increases with a load

of vehicles travelling on it Large holes are formed. Making the road more

dangerous, if these early small cracks and holes are left untreated. Remedy for

these road problem such as fixing large potholes or laying new road will cost

about 10 to 20 times more than the cost of resealing small potholes.

Roads are not in a good condition because of the load of the trucks that

worsen the cracks on the roads. And if the local Government will conduct a Road

Construction, It will take up to 1-2 months of Construction meaning the traffic will

last until the Road construction is done.

At the beginning, humans were used in detecting these holes. However,

detecting a holes manually is a very difficult one and time consuming process.

But with the advance of science and technology, automated systems with

intelligence are invented thus with the advantage of technology we would like to

create a machine that can use to detect cracks instead of humans and fill the
holes after detected with the help of different source and sensors, the time

consumed and the cost for detecting the cracks reduced and cracks are detected

with more accuracy and the cost for man power will lessen and this is our goal.

Some parts of Philippines road condition are in a rough conditions and with a lot

of potholes, these slows the travel or movement of the vehicles and contributed

to piling up and eventually created a heavy traffic in the end will affect other

accessible road to be traffic also. The repairs of roads are also affecting the

traffic. Vehicles pile up and moving very slow due to rough roads and narrow

roads.

According to Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) – “Potholes seem to be

everywhere – along Marcos Highway, from Katipunan Avenue to Santolan Road

in Quezon City; Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay City, and EDSA and C5.

Engineer Rey Tagudando, National Capital Region director of the Department of

Public Works and Highways, says potholes may be increasing but they're not as

many of them as there were last year. In fact, he said, there was a 10%

reduction. The C5-Libis road was repaired last month. But now you can see

cracks and potholes in some parts. According to Tagudando, newly-built roads in

a state of disrepair does not necessarily mean substandard materials were used.

The DPWH subject the materials to tests to determine their strength. Officials are

instead blaming the heavy volume of vehicles while repair is ongoing. One

problem, Tagudando said, occurs during re-blocking. The re-blocked road

section might be closed to traffic, but workers can't close lanes besides. Heavy

vehicles, especially trucks, passing near newly re-blocked areas could cause the
newly poured concrete to crack. Another problem is rainfall, which could delay

the paving of asphalt roads. A newly repaired road should be in good condition

for three to five years. If cracks and potholes develop within the one-year

warranty period, contractors are obliged to redo the repair at no cost to the

government, Tagudando said. From June to October of each year, the DPWH

fixes potholes as part of its maintenance work. And the money is there. The

1,000-km national highway covering nine districts in Metro Manila has a yearly

budget of P12 million to P15 million for maintenance. But the DPWH said

potholes couldn't be fixed on time due to lack of equipment, such as road rollers

and dump trucks. With repairs still ongoing, motorists will just have to tolerate

bumpy rides. Officials are urging the public to report potholes so these problems

can be fixed immediately.” The statement is very clear that potholes are one of

the problems In Manila hence it is very important to fix potholes.

Our professor gave us a project to think of a problem where we can create

a machine or device to help the community and we the student of Colegio De

Montalban, we decided to create a device that can detect potholes and can fill

potholes with the use of cement.

 What causes potholes? Potholes are caused by the expansion and

contraction of water that has entered the ground under the pavement. The

pavement then collapses when vehicles pass over the weakened spot, creating a

pothole. Potholes need two elements to be simultaneously present in order to

form: Water and traffic. Water intrusion into asphalt, typically from an improper

seal, first penetrates into the substrate below, loosening the underlying soil.

Combined with the near constant rumble of vehicle tires overhead—especially

the gigantic 18-wheeler cargo trucks that DoT engineers in Eisenhower's day

never imagined—and the liquefied soil will start to erode. Without this solid base

of soil to support it, the asphalt layer loses much of its structural integrity as

countless vehicles roll over it.

You can actually see these potholes forming by looking for crocodile

cracks—the pattern of cracks in an unsupported asphalt road that resemble the

diamond patterning on the reptile's back. These cracks will soon grow into

deeper seams allowing the individual chunks of roadway to grind against one

another like little tectonic plates—until a car tire flicks them free of the group and

forms the beginning of the pothole. Luckily, potholes don't generally get very

deep, though they can easily get a couple feet wide on less maintained roads

and can still wreck a suspension (or cause an outright wreck) if you're not driving

attentively.

How can potholes be repaired? According to Article Gizmodo it Depends

on where the road is, its maintenance duties fall either to state and local

authorities or to the Department of Transportation. The method of actually fixing

potholes depends on the weather and traffic conditions. If, say, a nasty pothole

opens up on a major freeway but the weather isn't favorable, road crews will

usually apply a temporary patch of cold asphalt until they can get back with a

semi-permanent fix. Semi-permanent repairs are more involved and require

crews to reconstruct the edge of the pothole, as well as the substrate

underneath, before pouring hot asphalt and smoothing it with the surrounding

roadway. There are a number of ways to do perform these repairs: The fastest

and least secure method is the "throw and roll" where in a temporary patch is

made by shoveling cold asphalt into a pothole then compressing it by driving a

truck over the patch. This method is only suitable as an emergency fix as

repeated applications can wind up costing as much as five times what a single

semi-permanent patch would cost a county.

An alternative to a semi-permanent patch, known as spray injection, is

quickly becoming popular given its massive cost savings over conventional

methods. Rather than send a full crew out to stand around and watch one guy

dig out the pothole, shovel in hot asphalt mix, and compact it, the spray injection

method can be accomplished by a single driver and a specialized sprayer truck

such as those patrolling Bedfordshire, UK, and New York City.

When is the goodtime to repair a pothole? A good time to do pothole

sealing is when an asphalt road or street is in fair to good condition. Along with

proper drainage, pothole sealing is probably the single most important

maintenance activity. Most pavement distresses can be related to the intrusion of

water into the pavement structure. If water is kept out of the pavement, the

majority of distresses can be stopped or delayed. Crack filling is done with

cement, In this project , we will focus on pothole sealing.

Pothole sealing has two primary purposes:

 To prevent the intrusion of water through the crack into the underlying

pavement structure.

 To prevent extraneous materials from entering the crack and causing

further deterioration as the pavement expands and contracts with

temperature changes.

Pothole sealing where cracks and potholes are subject to expansion and

contraction is done using a specially prepared cement. Depending on the

climate, the materials used, the pavement conditions and the technique used,

pothole sealing will last three to eight years if we will use asphalt but as for our

project it is only for study purposes that’s why we will only use cement.

According to article here are the types of cracks together their width and depth:

 Hairline cracks - Cracks that are 1/8 inches (3 millimeters) or less in

width are too small to seal effectively. If there are numerous hairline

cracks over a large area, then a surface seal such as fog seal, chip seal,

slurry seal or sand seal should be used. The particular surface seal must

be fluid enough to flow into the all the hairline cracks.

 Small, medium and large cracks - Cracks that are 1/8 inch or slightly

larger are usually routed to a width of ¿ inch or greater to provide a

reservoir for the sealant. The crack is then cleaned and sealed. If the

cracks are more than 2 inches deep, a backer rod should be installed to

conserve sealant. Cracks that are ½ inch to ¾ inch wide usually need only

cleaning and sealing. Install a backer rod if cracks are more than 2 inches

deep. Cracks that are larger than 3/4-inches wide should be filled with a

seal. The time of year when the crack filling is done will affect the

performance of the sealant. Most cracks will open and close, depending

on the season of the year. Crack sealing should be carried out when the

cracks are in the middle of their opening range, which usually equates to

spring or fall. Cracks filled in summer, when they are at minimum width,

will be under-filled in the winter. Cracks filled in the winter, when they are

at maximum width, will be over-filled in the summer and traffic may pull the

crack filling material out of the crack.

 Crack sealing materials - The crack sealing materials must have good

adhesion or bonding. They must be elastic yet resist softening. They must

be easy to apply yet resist cracking, aging and weathering. Also, they

must be compatible with pavement. According to an article this is the

Pothole and crack sealing procedure. For Pothole and crack sealing, the

most important aspect of the procedure is the preparation of the Pothole

and crack for treatment. Also, the season when the Pothole/crack sealing

is done will affect its performance. If the Pothole or cracks need to be

routed or sawed to remove extraneous material, it should be done before

cleaning the Pothole and cracks. The routing or sawing is best

accomplished using a vertical-spindle router, rotary-impact router, or a

random-crack saw. After doing the routing or sawing, clean the cracks

using high-pressure air, sandblasting, wire brushing, hot air blasting or

high-pressure water. Cleaning the cracks is an essential step to ensure

that the sealant will adhere to the sides of the crack. After cleaning, check

the cracks for depth. A backer rod should be placed in large deep cracks

to conserve sealant. The backer rod should be a compressible, non-

shrinking, non-absorbent material with a melting point higher than the

temperature of the sealant. The backer rod should be about 25 percent

wider than the crack, to prevent slipping or floating out after placing the

sealant. After the cracks are prepared, they are sealed with liquid asphalt.

Equipment used for crack sealing or filling varies from truck-mounted

pressure applicators with hand wands to pour pots. Each type of

equipment can heat and maintain the temperature of the sealant in the

450 range. No matter what type of equipment is used, the crack should be

filled with sealant material from the bottom to the top of the crack to

prevent air bubbles from forming. The air bubbles create weak spots in the

sealant. Pour only the amount of material that will fill the crack. Don’t try to

completely fill the crack because it is a waste of filler. Coat the vertical

surfaces of the crack with a small excess of filler deposited in the bottom

of the crack. To prevent tracking, the filler should be 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 inch below
 the top of the crack. If necessary, use a squeegee to remove excess

sealant on the pavement surface, and then blot with sand or limestone

dust.

Patching is the process of filling potholes or excavated areas in the asphalt

pavement. Quick repair of potholes or other pavement disintegration helps

control further deterioration and expensive repair of the pavement. Without timely

patching, water can enter the subgrade and cause larger and more serious

pavement failures. A full-depth or deep patch is considered a permanent repair,

while a thin surface patch or a “throw and go” pothole repair is usually temporary.

Materials for patching include hot mix asphalt, asphalt emulsion mixes, stockpile

patching mixes, and proprietary patching mixes with special blends of aggregate

and modified binders. Full-depth patching is the removal of the entire pavement

surface layer, regardless of its thickness, over the patching area. Deep patching

is the removal of four inches or more of the pavement surface course. Full-depth

patching applies to either asphalt or concrete pavements, but deep patching

applies only to asphalt pavements. This is how they seal a crack on the road it is

manually operate. One of the objective of this project is to lessen the man power

of fixing Potholes on the road and to maintain the condition of the road.
Technical Specifications

 Arduino Mega2560 - The Arduino Mega 2560 is a microcontroller board

based on the ATmega2560. It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 15

can be used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware

serial ports), a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack,

an ICSP header, and a reset button.

What is the use of Arduino Mega2650 in our device? To control all the

sequence or flow of our device, and this is main controller.

 Servo Motor - A Servo is a small device that has an output shaft. This

shaft can be positioned to specific angular positions by sending the servo

a coded signal. As long as the coded signal exists on the input line, the

servo will maintain the angular position of the shaft. As the coded signal

changes, the angular position of the shaft changes. In practice, servos are

used in signal control the flipper of cement tank. The Servo Motors come

with three wires or leads. Two of these wires are to provide ground and

positive supply to the servo DC motor. The third wire is for the control

signal. These wires of a servo motor are color coded. The red wire is the

DC supply lead and must be connected to a DC voltage supply in the

range of 4.8 V to 6V. The black wire is to provide ground. The color for the

third wire (to provide control signal) varies for different manufacturers. It

can be yellow (in case of Hitec), white (in case of Futaba), brown etc.

What is the use of servo motor in our device? We will use Servo motor

to support the squeegee to flatten the surface of the floor.

 Piezo Buzzer - A Piezo Buzzer is an electronic device commonly used to

produce sound. Light weight, simple construction and low price make it

usable in various applications like car/truck reversing indicator, computers,

call bells etc. Piezo buzzer is based on the inverse principle of piezo

electricity discovered in 1880 by Jacques and Pierre Curie. It is the

phenomena of generating electricity when mechanical pressure is applied

to certain materials and the vice versa is also true. Such materials are

called piezo electric materials. Piezo electric materials are either naturally

available or manmade.

What is the use of Piezo Buzzer in our device? Piezo buzzer to serve

as an indicator so if the sensor detected a Pothole or crack the piezo

buzzer will create a sound.

 DC Motor- The DC Motor has two leads. It has bidirectional motion. If we

apply +ve to one lead and ground to another motor will rotate in one

direction, if we reverse the connection the motor will rotate in opposite

direction. If we keep both leads open or both leads ground it will not rotate

(but some inertia will be there).If we apply +ve voltage to both leads then

braking will occurs.

What is the use of DC motor in our device? DC motor is the

responsible for the movement of the device and so as in mixing the

cement.
 Arduino Nano - The Arduino Nano can be powered via the Mini-B USB

connection, 6-20V unregulated external power supply (pin 30), or 5V

regulated external power supply (pin 27). The power source is

automatically selected to the highest voltage source.

What is the use of Arduino Nano in our device? To control another

type sequence or flow of our device.

 Ultrasonic sensors - A type of acoustic sensor divided into three broad

categories: transmitters, receivers and transceivers. Transmitters

convert electrical signals into ultrasound, receivers convert ultrasound into

electrical signals, and transceivers can both transmit and receive

ultrasound.

What is the use of UltraSonic Sensor in our device? Responsible for

detecting holes.

 Squeegee - A squeegee is a tool with a flat, smooth rubber blade, used to

remove or control the flow of liquid on a flat surface. It is used for cleaning

and in printing.

What is the use of Squeegee in our device? We will Use Squeegee to

flatten the cement.

 Battery a container consisting of one or more cells, in which chemical

energy is converted into electricity and used as a source of power.

What is the use of Squeegee in our device? Battery is source of our

device.
General Problem

One of the increasing problems the world is facing is worsened road

conditions. Unexpected potholes on roads may cause many accidents. Also

because of the bad road conditions, accidents may occur. We in this project

would like to design and develop a device that can detect potholes on roads and

fill with cement.

Specific Problem
General Objective

The study aimed to develop a device that can detect pothole and fill it with

cement Using Arduino mega 2650 that will help to detect potholes with the use of

other sensors and motors. The aim is to help community to maintain road

conditions by filling potholes using our propose project. Because of Aging roads

and poor road-maintenance systems result a large number of potholes, whose

numbers increase over time. Potholes jeopardize road safety and transportation

efficiency. Moreover, they are often a contributing factor to car accidents.

Specific Objective:

 To design a device that can detect potholes

 To develop a device that will automatically fill potholes

 To develop a user friendly device that helps people reduce man power

in repairing potholes.

 To help people to maintain the condition of the road

 To test and evaluate the functionality of the device in term s of 90%

reliability, efficiency, maintainability and accuracy.

Scope Delimitation and Limitation

Scope

The project aims to develop an automatic Pothole detector and pothole

filler. Because of our bad road condition we are motivated to develop a device

that will focus on road repairing, A device that can detect potholes and fill it with

cement This device will use a cement to seal the holes it can also automatically

mix the cement.

In order to develop the project, main parts are considered. They are the

development of the sensors, motors (Hardware), Codes for the movement of the

device (Software)

Our device operates Manual and Auto Mode, Manual in terms of putting cement

on the device. Auto Mode in terms of maintaining the sticky and wet texture of

the cement and to that we will use DC motor to mix the cement gradually. And to

make it possible to detect potholes we will use Arduino Mega 2650 A Micro

controller device to control the operation of the machine. The objective of this

study is to prevent the total distraction of road by maintaining its condition for that

we we will create a device that can detect holes to maintain the condition of our

road and to lessen the man power needed on conducting a road construction.

This study aimed to test if our proposed project will be effective in our road

knowing the road condition in our area.

Limitations and Delimitation

This study is limited base on the condition of the road there are 90%

possibility that it won’t work well on rough roads. it is limited only for flat roads

with a small potholes on it. Because our project objective is only to maintain the

road condition not to repair large cracks on a road. And our Goal is to fix

Potholes while it still small to reduce distractions and to maintain the flat surface

of the road. The features of this study is it will automatically run in roads and it

can also manage manually we will use battery that will last for about 2 hours and

we as we go further in our study we can develop that time duration but for this

study case we decided the battery is about to run in short time only for study

purposes. Because it is only for study purpose our device has a limitation it can

only detect a distance measured 6-7 inches, and upon testing we will use a

barrier or barricade to secure the movement of the device, for the running

availability it is only for flat surface it won’t work well on rough roads, and when

passing through a high slope there is a possibility that it will not function well

because of the weight of the loads of the device will carry. It can only carry about

9-12 kilos of cements.

This study is to develop a machine that can help to maintain physical

structure and condition of the roads this device will not work on the elevated area

it can’t climb up and it can’t available in wet, mud, river and lakes. It is only for flat

roads not for rough roads. Our aim is to maintain the roads condition but of

course it has limitations.

Significance of the Study

The main objective of the study is to be able to actualize another efficient

way of maintaining the road conditions by repairing small holes.

1. The study focused on explaining the features and the significance of our

propose project. Moreover, the results of the study will be beneficial to the

Society, Economy, Education. The result of the study may help Economy to

lessen the cost of conducting road construction in a way that this device will

maintain the condition of the road by repairing small cracks at potholes. This

study shall benefit many people especially the car owners so everyone can drive

smooth and safe because Potholes are foe to every driver, property owner, and

pedestrian alike. Not only can they cause damage to our vehicles, they can

reduce property value, compromise company profit, and even pose safety

hazards. The short message here is that potholes are no good and should be

repaired as soon as possible. In most cases, pothole repair is not a

recommended “do-it-yourself” project. This is one of the objectives of our Project

to repair road potholes and help to maintain road condition.

2. This study shall benefit the other Students, the findings of the study will

serve as a reference material and a guide for future researchers who wish to

conduct the same experimental study or any study related to Repairing Pothole

using Arduino.

3. This study shall benefit the environment. There is no waste generated with

this product.
Definition of Terms

 Potholes - A pothole is a structural failure in a road surface, usually

asphalt pavement, due to water in the underlying soil structure and traffic

passing over the affected area. Water first weakens the underlying soil;

traffic then fatigues and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the

affected area.

 Arduino - Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-

to-use hardware and software.

 Ultrasonic - As the name indicates, ultrasonic sensors measure

distance by using ultrasonic waves.

 Piezo - Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain

solid materials (such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter

such as bone, DNA and various proteins) in response to

applied mechanical stress.

 Servo – short for servomechanism of servomotor.

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES AND LITERATURE

Foreign related studies

Intelligent Pothole Repair Vehicle

Abstract

Potholing presents a major challenge for all national and state agencies

involved in the maintenance of roads and pavements. This has motivated a

significant amount of research for the development of higher-quality materials

and better techniques to combat road damage and increase road-repair life

expectancy. In 1987, the U.S. Congress established a 5-year applied research

program called the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP). The SHRP

functioned as a unit of the National Research Council, with its goal being to

improve the performance, safety, and efficiency of the nation’s highway system.

Relevant projects of the SHRP are reviewed in this chapter. In addition, this

chapter also reviews previous work done in the field of pothole detection and

automated road repair vehicles.

Pothole repairing materials and techniques

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and

Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in 1981 sponsored the preparation of a manual

to assist in the understanding and management of pothole problems in asphalt

pavements. The manual by Eaton et al. was revised in 1989 [2]. This manual
describes the factors that contribute to the increase in pothole occurrence. These

include factors such as lack of financing, traffic growth, weather and insufficient

drainage facilities. The two mechanisms, fatigue failure and raveling failure that

lead to pothole development are described. The use of preventive- 13

maintenance programs and pavement inventories are recommended to ensure

an organized and cost-effective way to preserve, repair, and restore roadway

systems throw-and-roll technique was found to be as effective as the semi-

permanent technique for the same materials. The throw-and-roll and spray

injection methods produced the highest-quality repairs in all cases and were

found to be the most cost-effective. The choice of the material proved to have a

dramatic effect on the life of the patch, and it was recommended using only high-

performance cold-mixes.

Smith et al. presented the research conducted under the SHRP Project H-

105, Innovative Materials and Equipment for Pavement Surface Repairs [3]. This

research effort was divided into five categories: asphalt concrete (AC) pothole

repair, AC crack repair, Portland cement concrete (PCC) spall repair, PCC joint

resealing, and PCC crack sealing. Proprietary bituminous mixes were found to

have a life expectancy significantly longer than conventional cold-mixes. It was

found that proprietary mixes are more advantageous over conventional mixes in

colder conditions as compared with warmer conditions. The use of permanent

hot-mixes in dry potholes was found to have the longest life expectancy;

however, hot-mixes did not perform satisfactorily when placed in wet potholes.
 Preliminary findings of the SHRP project H-106, Innovative Materials

Development and Testing, are presented by Evans et al. in [8]. Four main areas

were investigated, pothole repair in asphalt pavements, crack treatment in

asphalt pavements, joint sealing in PCC pavements, and spall repair in PCC

pavements. It was found that the throw-and-roll technique was as effective as the

semi-permanent procedure when using high-performance cold-mixes. The spray

injection method was found to be a viable method for pothole repair in asphalt

pavements.

Wilson et al. conducted an extensive pothole-repair experiment as part of

the SHRP project H-106.Tests were focused on cold-mix asphalt patching

materials, the most commonly used materials for winter- and spring-time pothole

repairs. The goal of 14 this project was to identify the most cost-effective

materials and techniques. Twelve hundred-and-fifty pothole patches were placed

at eight test sites across the United States and Canada. These patches were

placed using different types of cold-mixes and different installation techniques.

Patches placed in the dry-freeze region performed better than those placed in the

wet-freeze region.

Pothole Detection

Karuppuswamy et al. used a non-contact vision approach to detect

potholes. In their approach, a histogram of the environment is used to determine

a brightness threshold to determine if a pothole is within the field of view. Large

white potholes more than 2 feet in diameter were detected.

 Matthies et al. demonstrated the use of thermal signature for night-time

negative obstacle (pothole) detection [12]. Their work is based on the fact that

interiors of negative obstacles generally remain warmer than the surrounding

terrain throughout the night.

Automated road repair vehicles

In 1992, the department of civil engineering at Carnegie Mellon University

developed a prototype for an automatic crack-filling robot [13]. The robot utilized

video imaging to identify areas of potential cracks and range sensing, with an

infra-red laser range sensor, was used to confirm the location of the cracks. An

onboard air lance was then used to clean the cracks, and a sealant wand was

used to fill the cracks. In field trials, the located cracks were filled with an

accuracy of less than 1 cm. However, the frame of view was narrow, thus

requiring multiple runs over the same area. The robot was also very slow,

requiring two minutes to complete a range scan of a captured frame.

The Advanced Highway Maintenance and Construction Technology

Research Center (AHMCT) at UC Davis developed an Automated Crack Sealing

Machine (ACSM) in 1993 as part of SHRP project 107A [14]. The ACSM is

shown in Figure 2.1. According to the report by Velinsky, the machine comprised

of two systems, one for longitudinal cracks and joints and the other for random or

transverse cracks and joints. A vision system was used for crack detection. Once

the crack was located, hot blowing and sealing were performed automatically.
The ACSM was dismantled in 1998 due to complexities in running and

maintenance.

The Basic Industries Research Laboratory (BIRL) of Northwestern

University developed an Automated Pavement Repair Vehicle (APRV) in a 28-

month research project as part of SHRP project 107B [10]. The final report by

Blaha describes the 17 fabrication and testing of the APRV. The driver located

the potholes to be repaired and used a pavement cutter operated by a joystick to

cut and shape the holes if required. Next, a vision system scanned the area to be

repaired and a telescoping robotic arm used a vacuum nozzle to clear the

pothole of water and debris. The robotic arm then used a hot-air lance to heat the

surface and bonding edges. This was followed by automatic spray patching of

the pothole. The Northwestern University BIRL study did not achieve the

anticipated results. “The prototype machine was not effective in field trials. It

operated slowly and was costly to use. [9]”

Pothole Repair Device

Abstract

This thesis presents an endeavor to design and construct a prototype of

an automated road repair vehicle called the Intelligent Pothole Repair Vehicle

(IPRV). The IPRV is capable of automatically detecting and filling potholes on

road surfaces without operator assistance. An easy-to-construct mechanical

means of pothole detection was employed to reduce costs and complexity that

have thus far been the primary disadvantage of automated road repair vehicles.
A network interface to an Ethernet was designed based on the transmission

control protocol (TCP) to enable remote operability of the IPRV. A laptop

computer was used onboard the IPRV for control and interfacing using a data-

acquisition card installed on it.

The Visual Basic programming language and the Windows application

programming interface (API) were used for all the programming requirements of

this thesis. The IPRV employs feedback mechanisms for position control and

path following. Operation has been designed to incorporate safety mechanisms

that ensure that the IPRV automatically stops in the case of a loss of

communication link or large network delays. Experiments were performed to test

and calibrate the IPRV. The IPRV was designed to detect potholes that have a

maximum depth greater than 2 cm.

Intelligent Pothole Detection System, by Himanshu

Abstract

This paper aims at proposing a versatile Pothole Detection System which

assists the driver in avoiding potholes on the roads, by giving prior warnings. The

basic idea of this system is to detect the pothole at a distance from which driver

is driving the vehicle, to alert the driver if pothole is arriving in the way to reduce

the speed of the vehicle or take another path. This paper presents a detailed

description of the system based on image processing developed to process and

analyze the dataset captured using the camera mounted on the car that gives

high efficiency and accuracy compared to the conventional methods of pothole

detection. Keywords— Edge, False Rejection Rate, Filters, Pothole,

Segmentation, True Acceptance Rate I. INTRODUCTION The ever increasing

apathy of the road development authorities is one of the major reasons for the

increasing road mishaps. Potholes trigger majority of such mishaps. While driving

in the night just the headlights might not suffice in assisting the driver to detect

the presence of the pothole. Many other unexpected hurdles on road apart from

potholes may cause severe consequences. Abysmal road conditions cause

wastage of precious fuel, wear and tear of the tyre and damage to the vehicle. All

these reasons demand that it is important to collect information of such bad road

conditions and through a series of processing and analyzing the obtained

information, appropriate conclusions are derived which in turn, warn the driver. In

the information gathering phase, a vehicle with a camera mounted on its front

end travels along the road, thereby capturing images of the road. Henceforth in

the analyzing phase, this data will be processed by an algorithm to detect

potholes along the path travelled earlier by the vehicle. It is this algorithm which

will determine the reliability of the pothole detection by the system in place. For

this purpose, the algorithm has to identify edges that are caused exclusively by

potholes on the road. However, unwanted disturbances that are treated by the

system as noise would affect the ultimate outcome. To overcome this problem,

the dataset has to be pre-processed before the algorithm can use the dataset to

detect potholes. The system would then evaluate an index which would clearly

differentiate the pothole and the non-pothole road. On the basis of this evaluated

index, an alert will be generated by the system.

Pothole Detection and Warning System

Abstract

Many on-going projects in the field of vehicular networks are working in

the direction of providing driver with relevant information about roads and traffic

movements. In this paper, we propose a novel Wi-Fi based architecture for

Pothole Detection and Warning System which assists the driver in avoiding

potholes on the roads by giving prior warnings. The system consists of access

points placed on the roadsides for broadcasting data, which can be received byte

Wi-Fi enabled vehicles as they enter the area covered by the influence of the

access points. The mobile nodes can also broadcast their response as feedback

which when received by access point can beutilized for backend server

processing.The pothole detection application proposed in this paper enables the

driver to receive information of the potholes on the roads in the vicinity of the

moving vehicle. The application can be integrated in the vehicle so as to alarm

the driver in the form of a visual signal, audio signal or even trigger the braking

system. Simulations demonstrate the advantages of using our approach for

constructing pothole detection systems. Many such similar applications can be

deployed over the framework provided by the system to assist navigation on

roads. Key words: Intelligent vehicular systems, Wi-Fi, Pothole detection

Intelligent Pothole Detection, by Shouvik Mani

Abstract

Intelligent Pothole Detection was inspired by this incident of a group of

men in road along Pittsburgh to New Jersy With cars whizzing down the highway
at 80+ miles per hour, When their car ran over a cavernous pothole in the middle

lane of the freeway, the car’s tire burst due to impact, speed and road surface

temperature. “We held our breath as we made the left turn onto Neville Street,

just minutes away from Carnegie Mellon University. A collective silence filled the

car, and the only thing you could hear was the high-pitched hum of the Prius

engine. Four month’s work would be tested in the next few seconds, as we drove

over a brutal stretch of potholes. Our eyes were fixated on the iPhone mounted on

the windshield of the car, which would (hopefully) alert us if it detected a pothole.

As we drove over the line of potholes, the car shook violently”.

And sure enough, within a second, the iPhone app sounded its pothole

alarm. The three of us exploded in celebration. We had built an intelligent system

for road condition assessment.

From Frustration to Inspiration

On a daily basis, average Americans don’t think much about potholes. We

have grown accustomed to avoiding them and are slightly annoyed when we

mistakenly run over them. That changed for us when one of our team members,

Umang, was driving home for summer break from Pittsburgh to New Jersey. It

was a scorching 90 degrees. The PA Turnpike’s tar was even hotter. With cars

whizzing down the highway at 80+ miles per hour, any road deformity was sure to

be dangerous. When Umang ran over a cavernous pothole in the middle lane of

the freeway, the car’s tire burst due to impact, speed, and road surface

temperature. Thankfully, everyone inside the car was okay.

 Inspired by this incident, we got together and looked further into the matter.

We realized that poor road conditions are more than just a public nuisance; they

cause discomfort to passengers, as well as damage to vehicles and tragic

accidents. In the U.S., road-related conditions account for 22,000 of the 42,000

traffic fatalities each year. Besides this tragic cost to human life, damage to

vehicles from potholes costs Americans $3 billion a year to fix.

We endure and complain about bad roads all the time, but have no way to

detect or report them at scale. Meanwhile, civic authorities are not always aware

of present road conditions, and road repairs happen infrequently. As a result, we,

as citizens, are left helpless.

Rather than complaining any further, we took matters into our own hands.

As a data science research project advised by Professor Zico Kolter, we decided

to build a solution: a scalable system to detect potholes and assess road

conditions in real-time.

Scoping the Problem

Road assessment and repair is a complicated business involving

interactions between city residents, public works departments (PWDs), and

private contractors. We couldn’t possibly address all the problems in this space,

so we decided to focus solely on road quality assessment. If our system could

accurately assess road quality and relay that information, PWDs could devote

their time and resources into fixing bad roads instead of identifying them.
Specifically, we scoped the assessment problem down into two sub-problems.

First, we would perform road condition classification, differentiating good roads

from bad roads. Second, we would do pothole detection, identifying severe or

sudden pothole events in otherwise normal roads.

The smartphones in our pockets already have sensors that can help us

understand and classify road quality. So, we set out to build a system that

leverages smartphone sensors to crowdsource data on public road experience

and inform civic authorities about real-time road conditions.

Pothole Patrol Using a mobile sensor network for road surface Monitoring

Abstract

This paper investigates an application of mobile sensing: detecting and

reporting the surface conditions of roads. We describe a system and associated

algorithms to monitor this important civil infrastructure using a collection of

sensor-equipped vehicles. This system, which we call the Pothole Patrol, uses

the inherent mobility of the participating vehicles, opportunistically gathering data

from vibration and GPS sensors, and processing the data to assess road surface

conditions. We have deployed P2 on 7 taxis running in the Boston area. Using a

simple machine-learning approach, we show that we are able to identify potholes

and other severe road surface anomalies from accelerometer data. Via careful

selection of training data and signal features, we have been able to build a

detector that misidentifies good road segments as having potholes less than

0.2% of the time. We evaluate our system on data from thousands of kilometers
of taxi drives, and show that it can successfully detect a number of real potholes

in and around the Boston area. After clustering to further reduce spurious

detections, manual inspection of reported potholes shows that over 90% contain

road anomalies in need of repair.

Smart Detection and Reporting of Potholes

Abstract

The importance of the road infrastructure for the society could be

compared with importance of blood vessels for humans. To ensure road surface

quality it should be monitored continuously and repaired as necessary. The

optimal distribution of resources for road repairs is possible providing the

availability of comprehensive and objective real time data about the state of the

roads. Participatory sensing is a promising approach for such data collection.

The paper is describing a mobile sensing system for road irregularity

detection using Android OS based smart-phones. Selected data processing

algorithms are discussed and their evaluation presented with true positive rate as

high as 90% using real world data. The optimal parameters for the algorithms are

determined as well as recommendations for their application.

Dangerous road surface conditions are major distractions for safe and

comfortable transportation. Both drivers and road maintainers are interested in

fixing them as soon as possible. However, these conditions have to be identified

first. One approach to road damage detection is to use human reports to central

authorities. While it has the highest accuracy, assuming that people are fair, it
also has the most human interaction and is not comprehensive. Statistical

analysis can be used to estimate damage probabilities of road segments based

on their usage intensity. Integration of vibration and vehicle counting sensors in

the pavement are used for statistical data collection. Surface analysis methods

using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) have been developed and commercial

products do exist. Unfortunately, this technology is using expensive equipment

and therefore limits its accessibility. As an alternative, participatory sensing has

the potential to increase the collected data resolution and scope. The simplest

method might be to collect photos of road damage and hazards taken by the

participants and to upload them to a central server. However, this requires strong

participation and interaction from the users as well as manual image analysis.

We believe that an automated approach for detecting potholes with little or no

human interaction is more promising. This would ensure more comprehensive

survey data with less errors caused by human factors than generated by mere

enthusiasm of the participants. An automated survey approach could be carried

out by either customized embedded sensing devices or smart-phones.

While the former has more sensing capabilities and adaptation potential, the

popularity of smart-phones makes the latter approach very appealing in terms of

practical usability.
Pothole detection in asphalt pavement images, ChristianKoch

Abstract

One of the causes of local road accidents in developing countries, such as

the Philippines, is due to road damages such as potholes. In addition, there is no

proper road maintenance in the local roads, and so the checking of pothole is

done manually. Hence, in this paper we propose a simple and robust design of a

portable and affordable device that will be suitable for local jeepney (cab) drivers

here in the Philippines. A distinguishing feature of this proposal is that it does not

need a sophisticated Smartphone to automatically send the reports, and was

tested in an actual moving vehicle. Furthermore, the system can be installed in a

moving vehicle to automatically detect and report potholes via image-processing

of Raspberry-Pi microcontroller. Integration of several image-processing

schemes has been used to produce an algorithm using Python Language from

the OpenCV library that can detect and report potholes automatically from a

moving vehicle. The reported image of the pothole and its location are stored and

viewed through the use of the Internet, Dropbox, and web server. The system

was tested on a Hyundai Eon city car with maximum speed of 10kph-40kph

during daytime. With a rate of about 8 frames per second, images were

processed per frame to detect potholes by analyzing its color, depth, and area.

Overall, the whole system was successfully implemented using the Raspberry-Pi

microcomputer and was able to detect and report potholes from a moving car

with 100% reporting success rate.

Foreign related literature:

1. According to Aegis Asphalt Seal Coating Potholes

It is not uncommon for lawsuits to arise from such accidents, even

wrongful death lawsuits by head injuries. It is therefore extremely important for

private and public property owners to repair any potholes and to maintain the

condition of their pavement. And What causes potholes Especially common in

the winter rain or snow season, potholes are caused by the expansion and

contraction of water that has entered the ground under the pavement. The

pavement then collapses when vehicles pass over the weakened spot, creating a

pothole. According to them To avoid potholes, it is best to get a trusted contractor

to survey the pavement for risk factors and to provide adequate drainage.

Existing potholes need repair with a “temporary patch” or a “semi-permanent

repair.” Temporary patches utilize a “throw and roll”method that is a quick and

less expensive solution. A hot or cold asphalt patch material is placed in the

pothole and is then compacted with the wheel of a vehicle or by hand tamping.

Semi-permanent repair requires the removal of debris from the pothole and

making clean cuts along the patch area. Hot or cold asphalt patch is placed in the

pothole and is compacted with a vibratory plate or roller.

2. According to L&L Asphalt for most Arizonians Potholes

In fact, according to the travel agency AAA’s most recent estimates, the

damage done to vehicles from needlessly driving over them (or sometimes into

them), is costing Americans $3 billion in damages annually. This makes it

incredibly important for private and public property owners to repair potholes,

also commonly referred to as chuckholes and kettles, as soon as possible. And

What Causes the Formation of Potholes Just add cracks, water, winter cold, and

summer sun and voila you have potholes! Water gets underneath the pavement,

expands when frozen, and contracts when it melts. The expansion weakens the

asphalt, and the contraction leaves cracks behind, which eventually cause the

pavement to collapse. The end result? Potholes which can sometimes seem to

appear overnight – especially in poorly maintained areas.

The Best Pothole Repair Services

Asphalt Maintenance - An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! The

cost of addressing minor issues through a preventive asphalt maintenance

program is much less than addressing major deficiencies, such as potholes.

Asphalt maintenance should be performed by a professional asphalt paving and

repair company when roadways and parking lots are still in good condition.

These services include crack sealing which can potentially stop or delay the

formation of potholes since water intrusion cannot occur.

Patching Potholes - Patching is the process of filling pothole or excavated

areas in the asphalt pavement. Patching helps to control further deterioration and
expensive repair of the pavement. Without timely patching, water can get

underneath the pavement, causing further damage to occur. Several patching

methods exist including: quick patching, full-depth or deep patching, surface

patching, spray-injection patching, infrared heater patching, and cold weather

emergency patching.

Extensive Pothole Repair - This project entails repaving a parking lot or

roadway. Crews use a hot mix of asphalt to create a stable, permanent solution

to an area prone to potholes. Proper compaction is key to ensuring a permanent

repair. Crews commonly use medium to large-sized rollers depending on the size

of the area in need of repair. A properly compacted area should be overfilled to

ensure it is able to withstand the weight of vehicles driving on it day in and day

out.

Benefits of Pothole Repair - Pothole repair is a simple and necessary

measure to restore the look and overall function of your pavement. Potholes

aren’t just eyesores, but they can also become a pain to motorists who

sometimes swerve their vehicles to avoid the bumps and damages that potholes

cause. Usually the result of water damage or gradual deterioration over time,

they show neglect and an apparent lack of maintenance on your

property. Pothole repair can be a simple and necessary measure to restore the

look and overall function of your pavement. Consider the benefits of doing the

work now versus the possible need of a total replacement later.

 Safety First - As a property owner or manager, the safety of everyone that

comes onto the property is the main concern. Repairing any existing potholes

makes the pavement safer. Whether it’s a driveway, parking lot, or walking path,

filling potholes will prevent injuries and complaints. Cars sometimes swerve to

avoid potholes, which is dangerous to other motorists. They also cause damage

to tires and a car’s suspension. A factor that isn’t always obvious is the danger

potholes can be to pedestrians. A person walking that may not see a pothole is at

risk of twisting an ankle or even falling. Filling existing potholes will give you the

benefit of avoiding any associated issues that come with having this type of

damage on the pavement. Your customers and guests will appreciate the time

you’ve taken and the investment you’ve put into maintaining the structure and

function of your paved surfaces.

Appearance Restoration - Potholes are unsightly but often unavoidable as

water and natural deterioration from use over time will cause this type of

damage. They also make your property look unkept and neglected. Tending to

pothole repair shows your customers and guests that you care about their

perception and the appearance of your property. Ensuring that the pavement on

your property is smooth and maintained will restore its curb appeal and keep it

looking up to par for a longer period of time.

Cost Efficient - Doing pothole repair as soon as you see the damage will be

beneficial to your pockets.

3. Intelligent Pothole Detection and Road Condition Assessment

Poor road conditions are a public nuisance, causing passenger

discomfort, damage to vehicles, and accidents. In the U.S., road-related

conditions are a factor in 22,000 of the 42,000 traffic fatalities each year.

Although we often complain about bad roads, we have no way to detect or report

them at scale. To address this issue, we developed a system to detect potholes

and assess road conditions in real-time. Our solution is a mobile application that

captures data on a car's movement from gyroscope and accelerometer sensors

in the phone. To assess roads using this sensor data, we trained SVM models to

classify road conditions with 93% accuracy and potholes with 92% accuracy,

beating the base rate for both problems. As the user drives, the models use the

sensor data to classify whether the road is good or bad, and whether it contains

potholes. Then, the classification results are used to create data-rich maps that

illustrate road conditions across the city. Our system will empower civic officials

to identify and repair damaged roads which inconvenience passengers and

cause accidents. This paper details our data science process for collecting

training data on real roads, transforming noisy sensor data into useful signals,

training and evaluating machine learning models, and deploying those models to

production through a real-time classification app. It also highlights how cities can

use our system to crowdsource data and deliver road repair resources to areas in

need.
4. An Innovative Method for Repair of Potholes

Potholes are one of the most visible and annoying forms of distress

associated with bituminous pavement deterioration from the point of view of a

road user. Potholes have always been a problem for highway maintenance

agencies because their repair is costly and time-consuming. The objective of this

invention to have an economical and user friendly system for repair of potholes

on Indian Roads. A detailed description of the invention along with field

evaluation is described in the article. Potholes are bowl-shaped cavities of

varying (width and depth) sizes in the surface layer, sometimes extending into

the binder base courses caused by localized disintegration of materials in

pavement layers. This may simply be a depression on the surface of the

pavement caused by poor base support or a hole in the pavement layer. Shahin

(1994) adds that potholes are small, usually less than 3ft in diameter-bowl

shaped depression in the pavement surface. According to an Indian Roads

Congress document (IRC:82), potholes may be classified as small, medium and

large depending upon the width and depth of potholes.

According to O’ Flaherty (1988), potholes are not accompanied by distortion of

the adjacent surface. They generally result from a cracked bituminous surface,

which has allowed moisture to enter and soften the pavement or penetrate

horizontally under the bituminous layer. Once water has entered, the cracked

surface is prone to disintegrate and lift out under the action of traffic, particularly

after rainfall, thereby initiating the formation of a pothole. Cracking is the

prerequisite for a pothole to form. After the cracks are formed in the pavement,
expansion of the cracks leads to pothole formation. According to Atkins (1983),

potholes are relatively small holes in the surface, due to loss of material. The

cause may be material failure or faulty workmanship or the use of inappropriate

material. Unless attended to promptly, traffic action will widen and deepen the

holes, allowing water ingress and increased accident risk. Potholes may also be

symptoms of underlying structural failure. These all too common faults in road

surfacing present hazards, particularly in two-wheeled vehicles, and can also

damage all classes of vehicles. Insufficient bitumen content in localized areas of

the surface layer can also cause the formation of potholes. A thin bituminous

surface, which is unable to withstand heavy traffic, can also result in the

formation of potholes when associated with improper or inadequate camber. In

dense-graded mixtures, potholes can be caused by too many or too few fines.

Insufficient compaction of the surface or compaction at low temperature also

leads to development of potholes. The key disadvantages of delayed repair of

potholes are economic loss due to higher fuel consumption enhanced pollution

need of more material due to repair of larger size potholes sometimes

reconstruction. It is often observed that potholes remain unattended throughout

the rainy season, leading to a severe damage to roads and subsequently

hindrance in movement of vehicular traffic. Crack filling is done with liquid

asphalt, cutbacks and asphalt emulsions and is considered temporary work. In

this article, we will focus on crack sealing.

5. Preventing and repairing potholes and pavement cracks By John Davis

Pavement distresses accumulate as asphalt pavements age and traffic

pounds them. If timely maintenance isn’t performed, distresses are compounded.

Cracks become potholes and potholes become craters.

This article uses information from “MS-16 Asphalt in Pavement

Preservation and Maintenance” to provide practical information about methods,

procedures and terminology for properly sealing cracks and patching potholes.

According to Larry Galehouse, director of the National Center for Pavement

Preservation (NCPP), more and more private companies and local road agencies

are conducting training sessions about methods and procedures to maintain and

preserve asphalt pavements. “The cost of addressing minor deficiencies is much

less than addressing major deficiencies,” says Galehouse. “We have to do road

maintenance when the roads are in fair-to-good condition, rather than waiting

until they are in poor condition.” Galehouse says it takes far fewer dollars to fix a

good road in need of some maintenance rather than rehabilitating a bad road in

need of a lot of maintenance. “Road agencies just don’t have the money to

reconstruct bad roads anymore,” he adds. A good time to do crack sealing is

when an asphalt road or street is in fair to good condition. Along with proper

drainage, crack sealing is probably the single most important maintenance

activity. Most pavement distresses can be related to the intrusion of water into

the pavement structure. If water is kept out of the pavement, the majority of

distresses can be stopped or delayed.

6. Pothole Tracker Mike Catalano, EE, Daniel Chin, CSE, Bill Quigg, EE, and

Muhammad Mir, CSE

The Pothole Tracker is a system of devices that gathers and stores

information about potholes encountered on the road. The first Raspberry Pi

board, containing sensor units, is mounted on the front of the vehicle while the

second Raspberry Pi board, containing the storage, image processing program,

and button to activate the system, is located within the vehicle. The system is

connected to the internet through a Wi-Fi dongle which sends information

gathered by the sensors to a database. A website is connected to the database

to display the data on Google Maps to users, such as the Department of Public

Works, in a user-friendly manner.

Potholes are holes formed in the pavement as by excessive use or by

extremes of weather. They have become a nuisance and hazard to drivers

everywhere since the dawn of paved roads. These craters have caused serious

damages to cars resulting in costly repairs. According to AAA, potholes have cost

drivers $6.4 billion a year. This is around $2,000 throughout the life span of a car

just from road conditions. Road conditions are costing drivers, potholes being at

the forefront of the cause forcing drivers to demand their efficient repair.

The first step to solving a problem like repairing potholes is being able to

know where a pothole is located. Not all potholes are big enough in size and

depth to cause damage and certainly not every pothole can be repaired. How do

we keep track of potholes and their level of needing repair? Most places like
cities have a database of potholes setup, storing their location, size, and status of

repair. The city of Seattle, Washington has an implementation similar to this but a

key factor is how this information is acquired and stored. The citizens of Seattle

have to submit forms reporting potholes, which then are reviewed and put into a

database. Although this method is useful because who better to ask than those

who actually use the roads but submitting a form is a hassle and so is manually

storing the information into a database. With the advancement of technology

there are better ways to keep track of potholes.

The majority of today’s adults drive on the roads making this problem one

that affects the vast majority. On top of it they have to deal with the

consequences of something they have no control over fixing besides submitting a

request form. Potholes are timeless in the sense that for as long as there are

paved roads, they will become damaged and potholes will form.

An efficient solution to this problem would be a system that can track potholes

and submit the required data into a database. Regardless of the technology, the

system will need to go out into the field and analyze the potholes first hand.

Therefore the device needs to be compact enough to fit into a vehicle and

not be in the way of anything. In addition it needs to be able to be powered by the

car itself. It has to transfer data so wireless and network capabilities are a must.

There will also need to be driver input to tell the device when to start analyzing

the pothole.
Local Related Studies

Pothole Detection and Reporting using Raspberry-Pi Microcontroller

Abstract

One of the causes of local road accidents in developing countries, such as

the Philippines, is due to road damages such as potholes. In addition, there is no

proper road maintenance in the local roads, and so the checking of pothole is

done manually. Hence, in this paper we propose a simple and robust design of a

portable and affordable device that will be suitable for local jeepney (cab) drivers

here in the Philippines. A distinguishing feature of this proposal is that it does not

need a sophisticated Smartphone to automatically send the reports, and was

tested in an actual moving vehicle. Furthermore, the system can be installed in a

moving vehicle to automatically detect and report potholes via image-processing

of Raspberry-Pi microcontroller. Integration of several image-processing

schemes has been used to produce an algorithm using Python Language from

the Open CV library that can detect and report potholes automatically from a

moving vehicle. The reported image of the pothole and its location are stored and

viewed through the use of the Internet, Dropbox, and web server. The system

was tested on a Hyundai Eon city car with maximum speed of 10kph-40kph

during daytime. With a rate of about 8 frames per second, images were

processed per frame to detect potholes by analyzing its color, depth, and area.
 REFERENCES

Foreign

1. (Intelligent Pothole Repair Vehicle August 2005. Ruzbeh Adi Minocher

Homji, B.E., Marine Engineering & Research Institute)

2. (Pothole repair device, Kim, Won-Jong, Texas A&M University)

3. (Intelligent Pothole Detection System, Himanshu Punjabi)

4. (Pothole Detection and Warning System: Infrastructure Support and

System Design Sudarshan S. Rode)

5. (Intelligent Pothole Detection ,By Shouvik Mani, Umang Bhatt, Edgar Xi.)

6. https://medium.com/@percepsense/intelligent-pothole-detection-

879ef635dd

7. (The pothole patrol: using a mobile sensor network for road surface

monitoring Jakob Eriksson MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA)

8. (Pothole detection in asphalt pavement images, ChristianKoch)

9. (Pothole Detection and Reporting using Raspberry-Pi Microcontroller)

Local

1. (Smart Detection and Reporting of Potholes via Image-Processing using

Raspberry-Pi Microcontroller, Mae M. Garcillanosa ; Jian Mikee L.

Pacheco ; Rowie E. Reyes ; Junelle Joy P. San Juan)