Using Smartphones to Estimate Road Pavement Condition

Abstract

Efficient road infrastructure maintenance and management depends on many factors, of which the availability of updated pavement condition data is among the most important. Today’s smartphones, which usually come with many sensors, are potentially useful tools for pavement condition estimation. This research explores the use of data from smartphones’ accelerometers to analyze for features and relationship of acceleration vibration to estimate road roughness condition. Although, the estimation might not be as accurate as modern profilers, it still may be very useful for cost saving and as an indicator for continuous monitoring. In the experiment, smartphones are placed inside vehicles and drive along selected road sections to gather data for analysis. The analysis consists of data filtering, matching with location and reference data, sectioning and frequency domain analysis. Results show that acceleration vibration magnitude has a linear relationship with road roughness condition. Citation: Douangphachanh, V. & Oneyama, H. (2014). Using Smartphones to Estimate Road Pavement Condition. In: Campbell P. and Perez P. (Eds), Proceedings of the International Symposium of Next Generation Infrastructure, 1-4 October 2013, SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong, Australia.