Distributed road assessment system
First Claim
1. A system for inspecting roads comprising:
- a road assessment pod capable of being coupled to a vehicle, the road assessment pod including;
a collection of antennas for emitting ground-penetrating radar and receiving return signals as the vehicle travels down a road;
a damage assessment component that analyzes the return signals to detect occurrences of damage and that determines the type of each occurrence of damage; and
a transmission component that, for each occurrence of damage, transmits occurrence information that includes location and type of the occurrences; and
a road assessment server including;
a component that receives the occurrence information transmitted by the road assessment pod;
a correspondence component that identifies correspondences between newly detected occurrences and previously detected occurrences;
a component that, when no correspondence is identified between a newly detected occurrence and any previously detected occurrence, indicates that the newly detected occurrence represents damage not previously detected; and
a component that, when a correspondence is identified between a newly detected occurrence and a previously detected occurrence, updates information for that previously detected occurrence based on that newly detected occurrence.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system that detects damage on or below the surface of a paved structure or pavement is provided. A distributed road assessment system includes road assessment pods and a road assessment server. Each road assessment pod includes a ground-penetrating radar antenna array and a detection system that detects road damage from the return signals as the vehicle on which the pod is mounted travels down a road. Each road assessment pod transmits to the road assessment server occurrence information describing each occurrence of road damage that is newly detected on a current scan of a road. The road assessment server maintains a road damage database of occurrence information describing the previously detected occurrences of road damage. After the road assessment server receives occurrence information for newly detected occurrences of road damage for a portion of a road, the road assessment server determines which newly detected occurrences correspond to which previously detected occurrences of road damage.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A system for inspecting roads comprising:
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a road assessment pod capable of being coupled to a vehicle, the road assessment pod including; a collection of antennas for emitting ground-penetrating radar and receiving return signals as the vehicle travels down a road; a damage assessment component that analyzes the return signals to detect occurrences of damage and that determines the type of each occurrence of damage; and a transmission component that, for each occurrence of damage, transmits occurrence information that includes location and type of the occurrences; and a road assessment server including; a component that receives the occurrence information transmitted by the road assessment pod; a correspondence component that identifies correspondences between newly detected occurrences and previously detected occurrences; a component that, when no correspondence is identified between a newly detected occurrence and any previously detected occurrence, indicates that the newly detected occurrence represents damage not previously detected; and a component that, when a correspondence is identified between a newly detected occurrence and a previously detected occurrence, updates information for that previously detected occurrence based on that newly detected occurrence. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A road assessment pod for collecting road damage information as a vehicle travels down a road, the road assessment pod comprising:
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a collection of antennas for emitting ground-penetrating radar and receiving return signals as the vehicle travels down a road; a detection component that analyzes the return signals to detect objects on or below the surface of the road; a classification component that determines whether a detected object represents an occurrence of road damage; a type component that determines a type of each occurrence of damage; and a transmission component that, for each occurrence of damage, transmits occurrence information that includes location and type of the occurrence. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A road assessment system for collecting road damage information from road assessment pods as vehicles on which the road assessment pods are mounted travel down a road, comprising:
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a component that receives occurrence information transmitted by road assessment pods, the occurrence information indicating newly detected occurrences of damage to the road; a correspondence component that identifies correspondences between newly detected occurrences and previously detected occurrences; a component that, when no correspondence is identified between a newly detected occurrence and any previously detected occurrence, indicates that the newly detected occurrence represents damage not previously detected; and a component that, when a correspondence is identified between a newly detected occurrence and a previously detected occurrence, updates information for that previously detected occurrence based on that newly detected occurrence. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for inspecting roads, the method comprising:
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collecting by a road assessment pod road damage information as a vehicle on which the road assessment pod is mounted travels down a road, the road assessment pod using ground-penetrating radar to identify occurrences of damage to the road; transmitting by the road assessment pod occurrence information in real time to a road assessment server, the occurrence information including location and type of each occurrence of damage identified by the road assessment pod; and processing by the road assessment server the occurrence information to identify new occurrences of damage and changes to existing occurrences of damage based on the locations of newly detected occurrences of damage compared to locations of previously detected occurrences of damage.
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Specification