Photogrammetric solutions used in the new mobile system of road surface diagnosis

Abstract

Assessment of the technical condition of road surface is being usually carried out by visual recognition of distress. For its geometric description a simple method of measuring the longitudinal and/or transverse roughness is also used. As a result basic information on the state of road surface is achieved. Currently, increasingly popular are various types of vehicles carrying out such tests in automated manner. They are the basis of Pavement Management Systems (PMS) that are used for the efficient management of road maintenance and repair. Attempt to build own PMS system has been made at Poznan University of Technology with the participation of other entities. It consists of two parts – a field segment and office segment. The first one includes a set of sensors and algorithms for registration the condition of road surface, the second consists of procedures for numerical analysis and visualization of the damages in the form of maps and text reports. Among the technical problems associated with the construction of a filed segment is the way of automated data acquisition for the evaluation of selected geometrical characteristics of the pavement. It was decided to solve it using photogrammetric methods. These are: (1) elaboration of photomap for visualization of road lane within 3D GIS, and (2) imaging the pavement in the form of cross-sections. The mechanism mounted on the car has been designed, built and tested. It includes, among others, the two photogrammetric modules. The first module consists of 2 or 3 cameras and LED lighting. The other is a module with 3D camera recording cross-sections illuminated by line laser. For the purposes of location and orientation RTK GPS system with two antennas and IMU have been applied. Currently, the various modules of the system are tested. The current state of the system and the preliminary results are presented in the publication.