Pavement condition analysis from modeling impact of traffic characteristics, weather data and road conditions on segments of a transportation network infrastructure

• US 9,098,654 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2014
• Issued: 08/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DTN, LLC (TBG AG)
• Original Assignee: Iteris Incorporated
• Inventors: Mewes, John J., Osborne, Leon F.
• Primary Examiner(s): ALHIJA, SAIF A
• Application Number:
  US14/294,056
• Publication Number:
  US 20140278331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 428 Days
• Field of Search: 703/6
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/82 Elements for improving aerodynamics

Abstract

A pavement condition analysis system and method models a state of a roadway by processing at least traffic and weather data to simulate the impact of traffic and weather conditions on a particular section of a transportation infrastructure. Traffic data is ingested from a plurality of different external sources to incorporate various approaches estimating traffic characteristics such as speed, flow, and incidents, into a road condition model to analyze traffic conditions on the roadway in order to improve road condition assessments and/or prediction. A road condition model applies these traffic characteristics, weather data, and other input data relevant to road conditions, accounting for heat and moisture exchanges between the road, the atmosphere, and pavement substrate(s) in a pavement'"'"'s composition, as further influenced by traffic and road maintenance activities, to generate accurate and reliable simulations and predictions of pavement condition states for motorists, communication to vehicles, use by industry and public entities, and other end uses such as media distribution.

Claims

1. A method of integrating traffic and weather data for modeling travel conditions in a transportation infrastructure network, comprising:

ingesting, as a first set of input data, weather data collected from one or more of weather sensors, satellite networks, vehicle-based systems, and numerical weather prediction models, and developing one or more meteorological profiles representing weather conditions on a roadway segment of a transportation infrastructure for which travel conditions are to be modeled;

ingesting, as a second set of input data, traffic data, and developing one or more traffic profiles representing traffic conditions on the roadway segment for which travel conditions are to be modeled;

simulating, in a computing environment comprised of hardware and software components that include at least one processor configured to analyze the one or more meteorological profiles and one or more traffic profiles, current and forecasted pavement conditions in response to

     1) changes in states of moisture atop the road resulting from heat and moisture exchanges between a pavement surface and the atmosphere and

     2) traffic flow characteristics over time as indicated in the traffic profile, in a pavement condition model that develops a profile of pavement condition states over the specified period of time; and

generating, using the profile of pavement condition states and one or more of the meteorological profiles and traffic profiles, data that provide an indication of travel conditions and travel options that include at least one of travel difficulty, travel safety, travel efficiency, and route optimization in an area of travel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data are indicative of travel conditions along one or both of preferred and alternative routes of travel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data provide routing recommendations along the one or both of preferred and alternative routes of travel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data are presented as one or more of textual and visual summarizations of travel conditions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data are provided as quantitative metrics summarizing travel conditions along preferred and alternative routes of travel.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the weather data and traffic data further includes data collected from crowd-sourced observations.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the weather sensors are comprised of at least one of radar systems, surface networks, and image-based systems.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the traffic data is representative of actual traffic conditions that include at least one of traffic speed data, traffic flow data, and incident data, from one or both of analyzed traffic characteristics that include traffic information generated by a traffic state estimation platform, and predicted traffic characteristics that include predicted traffic speed and predicted traffic volume generated by a traffic prediction platform.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the one or more meteorological profiles and the one or more traffic profiles with representative road segment metadata maintained in at least one road segment database.

10. A system comprising:

a computer processor; and

at least one computer-readable storage medium operably coupled to the computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the computer processor being operable to execute the program instructions to operate a pavement condition model in a plurality of data processing modules, the plurality of data processing modules including;

a data ingest module configured to receive, as input data, weather data representing meteorological conditions experienced on segments of roadway in a transportation infrastructure, and traffic data representing traffic conditions experienced on segments of roadway in a transportation infrastructure;

a pavement analysis module configured to develop a profile of pavement condition states over a specified period of time in response to

     1) changes in states of moisture atop the road resulting from heat and moisture exchanges between a pavement surface and the atmosphere, and

     2) traffic flow characteristics over time, and

a forecast module configured to generate predictions of pavement condition states over the specified period of time.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the weather data is collected from one or more of weather sensors, satellite networks, vehicle-based systems, and numerical weather prediction models, and wherein the traffic data is representative of actual traffic conditions that include one or more of traffic speed data, traffic flow data, and incident data, from one or both of analyzed traffic characteristics that include traffic information generated by a traffic state estimation platform, and predicted traffic characteristics that include predicted traffic speed and predicted traffic volume generated by a traffic prediction platform.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the data ingest module is further configured to generate meteorological profiles from the weather data, and traffic profiles from the traffic data, and further configured to associate the weather data and the traffic data with road network segment information.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the weather data and traffic data further includes data collected from crowd-sourced observations.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the predictions of pavement condition states over the specified period of time are packaged as output data for traffic flow models in one or more output data modules configured to develop enhanced commercial content in one or more related application programming interfaces.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising at least one module configured to deliver at least one of indicia for visual display on a graphical user interface, textual information, or audio, for use by motorists, for communication to vehicles, for use by industry and public entities, and as content for distribution to one or more media outlets, wherein the content is derived from the predictions of pavement condition states over the specified period of time.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the predictions of pavement condition states over the specified period of time are used to provide data indicative of travel conditions that include at least one of travel difficulty, travel safety, travel efficiency and route optimization in an area of travel.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the data are indicative of travel conditions along one or both of preferred and alternative routes of travel.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the data provide routing recommendations along the one or both of preferred and alternative routes of travel.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the data are provided as one or more of textual and visual summarizations of travel conditions.

20. A method of modeling travel conditions in a transportation infrastructure network, comprising:

developing associations of input data to road segment metadata in a plurality of profiles in at least one processor in a computing environment comprised of hardware and software components to enable a plurality of data processing functions in a pavement condition model, the plurality of profiles include a meteorological profile representing weather conditions, and a traffic profile representing traffic conditions, for roadway segments of a transportation infrastructure;

simulating and iteratively adjusting current and forecasted pavement conditions in response to

     1) changes in states of moisture atop the road resulting from heat and moisture exchanges between a pavement surface and the atmosphere and

     2) traffic flow characteristics over time as indicated in the traffic profile, in a pavement condition model that develops a profile of pavement condition states over the specified period of time; and

predicting pavement condition states over the specified period of time, wherein predictions of pavement condition states are utilized to generate data providing an indication of travel conditions that include at least one of travel difficulty, travel safety, and route optimization in an area of travel.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the input data is comprised of weather data collected from one or more of weather sensors, satellite networks, vehicle-based systems, and numerical weather prediction models, the weather data representative of one or more of atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind speed, and precipitation in an area in which the roadway segments are located.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the input data is comprised of traffic data representative of actual conditions in one or both of analyzed traffic characteristics and predicted traffic characteristics experienced on the roadway segments, wherein the actual traffic conditions include traffic speed data, traffic flow data, and incident data.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the analyzed traffic characteristics include traffic information generated by a traffic state estimation platform, and wherein the predicted traffic characteristics include predicted traffic speed and predicted traffic volume generated by a traffic prediction platform.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein at least one of the weather data and traffic data further includes data collected from crowd-sourced observations.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising generating output data packaged for traffic flow models to deliver at least one of indicia for visual display on a graphical user interface, textual information, or audio, for use by motorists, for communication to vehicles, for use by industry and public entities, and as content for distribution to one or more media outlets, wherein the content is derived from the predictions of pavement condition states over the specified period of time.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the data are indicative of travel conditions along one or both of preferred and alternative routes of travel.

27. The method of claim 20, wherein the data provide routing recommendations along one or both of preferred and alternative routes of travel.

28. The method of claim 20, wherein the data provide one or more of textual and visual summarizations of travel conditions.