<
https://theconversation.com/suddenly-dodging-potholes-after-all-this-rain-heres-how-drones-could-help-with-repairs-191077>
"When it rains, it pours. And when it pours – like it has this year – we get
potholes. While minor potholes are an inconvenience, major potholes can destroy
car wheels and cause crashes, as dozens of motorists discovered last week on
the Hume Freeway.
Three very rainy years along Australia’s east coast mean potholes are growing
in number. In southeast Queensland, thousands of kilometres of potholed roads
were awaiting repairs months after floods in the region. In inland New South
Wales, road crews have repaired more than 135,000 potholes since February.
Potholes may even factor in next month’s Victorian election. Labor has promised
urgent repairs while the Liberals have pledged A$1 billion per year over ten
years towards roads maintenance.
Potholes repairs tend to happen long after the damage first appeared. This is
especially true in rural areas where councils must maintain vast road networks
on a very limited budget. The growing problem has already forced some councils
to cut capital works programs to shore up their roads. That’s where our new
research may help.
By using drones or cameras on cars, we can capture the state of an areas’s
roads to build a digital model. We can then run a machine learning program on
it to accurately predict which potholes are likely to widen into a
wheel-destroying pit.
This could lead to safer roads and save ratepayers and motorists serious
amounts of money. Cost benefit analysis suggests it could cut monitoring costs
by around 40%."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
