IrGTU presented a modern mobile road laboratory for monitoring and diagnosing highways, which can scan pavement with high accuracy and record objects on the road. Its key advantages include ground penetrating radar, a laser scanner, and fast data processing into a standard form for analysis.
“This is the most advanced mobile road laboratory for monitoring the road network in Russia,” V. Balabanov notes. “One of the most valuable instruments in the complex can be called a georadar, capable of scanning what is beneath the road surface. After the data are processed, the ‘road pavement’ can be divided into structural layers. Greater measurement accuracy is provided by the laser scanner. Previously, object referencing was carried out by digitizing on video footage, where the error could amount to 10–20 centimeters depending on the distance. Our equipment guarantees minimal error.”According to Vladimir Martyanov, professor at the Department of Highways, a comprehensive assessment of a highway requires three main documents: a technical passport, an assessment of the current transport and operational condition, and a traffic organization project (signs, markings, barriers, etc.).
“For the first time, a road in video format has become available to a specialist directly at their workplace. Instant access to any road, to objects physically located hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from the user, provides unique opportunities for improving the management process and decision-making in the road sector,” V. Martyanov emphasizes. As is known, the current condition of roads forces motorists to turn to auto repair shops more and more often.
The data obtained as a result of the work are analyzed and converted into a standard form. Mathematical methods make it possible to filter out noise arising while the laboratory moves over the actual road surface. Final data processing is carried out in automatic, semi-automatic, or manual modes using a special video-measurement system on ordinary office computers. At the same time, the speed of full video processing can reach 100 km per shift.
According to V. Balabanov, the advantages of the modern equipment were appreciated in practice by the staff of the Department of Highways when, in September–December 2012, they carried out a major project (worth five million rubles) using rented equipment to diagnose and create a video passport of the road network in the Alarsky District of the Irkutsk Region. The mobile complex acquired for IrGTU surpasses the previously used equipment in many respects and requires a certain level of staff qualification. At present, specialists are being trained to work with the new instruments.