MANAGEMENT TOOLS FOR QUANTIFICATION AND SIMULATION OF PERFORMANCE AND OUTCOME OF WINTER TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES
First Claim
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1. A method of evaluating and identifying appropriate maintenance responses in a winter transportation infrastructure, comprising:
- ingesting input data from a plurality of external databases, the input data including
1) collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data, the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data including a plurality of treatment data, road network data, weather data, and component apportionment data and
2) observed transportation infrastructure data, including weather data, environmental data, roadway characteristics data, maintenance resources data, and maintenance policies data to a plurality of modules configured to perform multiple data processing functions to
1) model a performance of the winter transportation infrastructure maintenance activities and
2) model roadway conditions with maintenance responses to weather conditions experienced in at least a portion of a transportation infrastructure;
quantifying the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data by applying the multiple data processing functions to associate one or more of maintenance actions, road network information, weather events, and specific maintenance component applications byapplying the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data to a transportation network based on a plurality of GPS position, a determined direction of travel along the coordinate system defined by the transportation network, and lane information provided within data relative to one or more lanes of the transportation network,segmenting the transportation network to enable an aggregation of data collected along defined segments comprising the transportation network, andspecifying component materials and apportionments of component materials in at least one selectable mixture comprising the component apportionment data to compare utilization of the component materials and mixtures being applied to the transportation network; and
applying a road condition model to generate a simulation of road conditions responsive to maintenance activities and weather conditions experienced in at least a portion of a transportation infrastructure by integrating the weather data, environmental data, roadway characteristics data, and one or more behavioral characteristics of specific treatments applied to the transportation network in the multiple data processing functions;
modulating the road condition model generating the simulation of road conditions responsive to maintenance activities and weather conditions experienced in at least a portion of a transportation infrastructure by applying a maintenance prescription model representative of an agency'"'"'s standard maintenance treatment in at least one of a rules-based model for a specific weather and treatment situation and a dynamically-determined response based on available maintenance resources to generate a simulated impact of candidate maintenance treatments, the applying and modulating of the road condition model generating simulated road condition and maintenance data; and
generating output metrics against which
1) an outcome of a specific winter transportation maintenance infrastructure activity is comparable to evaluate an effectiveness and an efficiency of winter maintenance activities and
2) an outcome of specific maintenance responses are evaluated to enable identification of one or more appropriate maintenance response for each situation requiring maintenance.
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Abstract
An apparatus and system for evaluating winter transportation infrastructure maintenance operations includes a quantification component and a simulation component. Input data representative of collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data and observed transportation infrastructure data are modeled in a comprehensive data processing mechanism to measure and carry out effective and efficient winter maintenance planning and operations.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method of evaluating and identifying appropriate maintenance responses in a winter transportation infrastructure, comprising:
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ingesting input data from a plurality of external databases, the input data including
1) collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data, the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data including a plurality of treatment data, road network data, weather data, and component apportionment data and
2) observed transportation infrastructure data, including weather data, environmental data, roadway characteristics data, maintenance resources data, and maintenance policies data to a plurality of modules configured to perform multiple data processing functions to
1) model a performance of the winter transportation infrastructure maintenance activities and
2) model roadway conditions with maintenance responses to weather conditions experienced in at least a portion of a transportation infrastructure;quantifying the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data by applying the multiple data processing functions to associate one or more of maintenance actions, road network information, weather events, and specific maintenance component applications by applying the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data to a transportation network based on a plurality of GPS position, a determined direction of travel along the coordinate system defined by the transportation network, and lane information provided within data relative to one or more lanes of the transportation network, segmenting the transportation network to enable an aggregation of data collected along defined segments comprising the transportation network, and specifying component materials and apportionments of component materials in at least one selectable mixture comprising the component apportionment data to compare utilization of the component materials and mixtures being applied to the transportation network; and applying a road condition model to generate a simulation of road conditions responsive to maintenance activities and weather conditions experienced in at least a portion of a transportation infrastructure by integrating the weather data, environmental data, roadway characteristics data, and one or more behavioral characteristics of specific treatments applied to the transportation network in the multiple data processing functions; modulating the road condition model generating the simulation of road conditions responsive to maintenance activities and weather conditions experienced in at least a portion of a transportation infrastructure by applying a maintenance prescription model representative of an agency'"'"'s standard maintenance treatment in at least one of a rules-based model for a specific weather and treatment situation and a dynamically-determined response based on available maintenance resources to generate a simulated impact of candidate maintenance treatments, the applying and modulating of the road condition model generating simulated road condition and maintenance data; and generating output metrics against which
1) an outcome of a specific winter transportation maintenance infrastructure activity is comparable to evaluate an effectiveness and an efficiency of winter maintenance activities and
2) an outcome of specific maintenance responses are evaluated to enable identification of one or more appropriate maintenance response for each situation requiring maintenance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of managing performance and outcome of winter transportation infrastructure maintenance activities, comprising:
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modeling a performance of the winter transportation infrastructure maintenance activities by processing input data in a first plurality of data normalization functions to associate winter transportation maintenance actions with weather events and treatment recommendations, the first plurality of data normalization functions including applying the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data to a transportation network based on a plurality of a GPS position, a determined direction of travel along the coordinate system defined by the transportation network, and lane information provided within data relative to on one or more lanes of the transportation network, segmenting the transportation network to enable an aggregation of data collected along defined segments comprising the transportation network, and specifying component materials and apportionments of component materials in at least one selectable mixture comprising the component apportionment data to compare utilization of the component materials and mixtures being applied to the transportation network; modeling roadway conditions and maintenance responses to weather conditions experienced in at least a portion of a transportation infrastructure by processing the input data in a second plurality of data normalization functions configured to associate the weather condition data to transportation network data, relate a road condition model with one or more behavioral characteristics of specific treatments applied to the transportation network, and apply at least one of a rules-based model for a specific weather and treatment situation and a dynamically-determined response based on available maintenance resources to generate a simulated impact of candidate maintenance treatments; generating a plurality of output data capable of manipulation to quantify and simulate winter transportation maintenance infrastructure activities to evaluate and identify one or more appropriate maintenance response for as specific situation requiring maintenance; and presenting the output data to a user in one or more sets of indicia on a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface enabling the user to perform a plurality of customizable applications to the output data further comprising presenting the user with selectable characteristics in a plurality of pull-down menus on the graphical user interface, and enabling a plurality of views of the output data, the plurality of views at least including a tabular format and a map-based format. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A winter transportation infrastructure maintenance evaluation tool, comprising:
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a quantification module integrating collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data from a plurality of external databases and comprising one or more program instructions configured to execute a plurality of data processing functions on the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data, the plurality of data processing functions normalizing the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data by associating maintenance actions, road network information, weather events, and specific maintenance component applications by applying the collected winter transportation infrastructure maintenance data to a transportation network based on a plurality of a GPS position, a determined direction of travel along the coordinate system defined by the transportation network, and lane information provided within data relative to one or more lanes of the transportation network, segmenting the transportation network to enable an aggregation of data collected along defined segments comprising the transportation network, and specifying component materials and apportionments of component materials in at least one selectable mixture comprising the component apportionment data to compare utilization of the component materials and mixtures being applied to the transportation network; and a simulation module processing observed transportation infrastructure maintenance data from a plurality of external databases and comprising one or more program instructions configured to execute a plurality of data processing functions on the observed transportation infrastructure maintenance data, the plurality of data processing functions normalizing the observed transportation infrastructure data by performing a road condition model by integrating weather data, environmental data, and roadway characteristics data, and one or more behavioral characteristics of specific treatments applied to the transportation network in multiple data processing functions, and modulating the simulation of the road condition model with maintenance responses to weather conditions experienced in at least a portion of a transportation infrastructure by applying at least one of a rules-based model for a specific weather and treatment situation and a dynamically-determined response based on available maintenance resources to generate a simulated impact of candidate maintenance treatment; and a graphical user interface module aggregating output data from the quantification module and output data from the simulation module for presentation to a user in a graphical user interface tool configured to enable the user to perform a plurality of customizable applications, the quantification module and the simulation module generating the output data capable of manipulation to evaluate and identify one or more appropriate maintenance response for specific situations requiring maintenance. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification