PaVision® Automated Pavement Condition Assessment System

Challenge

Finding a safe, reliable, and affordable pavement condition assessment system is a challenge for many agencies. While Federal and State highway agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, cities/counties, and tollways all have a need for assessing pavement conditions, typically only larger organizations have sufficient resources to acquire state-of-the-art digital image and/or laser crack measurement systems and automated distress identification technologies. ARA developed PaVision® to provide agencies of all sizes an affordable, easy-to-use system to assess pavement conditions.

Solution

PaVision uses commercial off-the-shelf hardware and components that can be acquired and updated easily. The PaVision equipment is easily transported via hand-carried cases and mounted to a standard Class III tow hitch. The system includes a downward-facing camera for pavement images, a forward-looking camera for right-of-way images, a GPS receiver, an accelerometer for measuring pavement ride quality, a LiDAR sensor for measuring pavement rutting, and a miniature portable computer. All of the equipment is mounted on weatherproof housings that are secured to a vertical hitch post. One person can assemble and attach the system to any vehicle with a standard tow hitch in a matter of minutes.

The collected images and data can be stored on a local system hard drive or uploaded to the cloud in real time. Images are then analyzed automatically to quantify pavement distress and ride quality. The resulting product is a sectioned database of geo-referenced pavement distress data, ride quality data, rutting measurements, and condition index ratings that are displayed on color-coded, shapefiles and associated tabular summaries. The comprehensive data set allows the agency to accurately evaluate pavement conditions network-wide, identify pavement repair requirements, and effectively communicate conditions and future needs to stakeholders.

PaVision is the low-cost pavement management data collection system that allows anyone to have high-quality management data.

• Highly Portable
• Easy to Use
• Multiple Camera Views
• Cloud-based Storage & Processing

The PaVision system is an innovative technology that offers transportation agencies of all sizes the ability to cost-effectively assess pavement conditions and implement pavement management practices.

Mike Harrell PE  •  Tel: 217-356-4500