Using Probe Vehicles for Pavement Monitoring: Experimental Results from Tests Performed on a Road Network

AbstractRecently, IFSTTAR has taken an interest in the use of probe vehicles for the road monitoring of some characteristics such as the pavement longitudinal profile. After studying the feasibility of the method on a metrological angle, a measurement chain and an automated data processing tool have been developed. The process begins with the data collection using low-cost sensors embedded in each probe vehicle and ends with the presentation to the road managers of the profile quality indicator matched on a map. Thereafter, this innovative pavement monitoring method has been tested with the deployment of a dozen of probe vehicles on a road network of about one thousand kilometers long. This article aims to present, in a first step, the different tools developed by IFSTTAR (data collection systems, map-matching algorithms, database format, etc.) and then, in a second step, to comment the results coming from the application of the pavement monitoring method on the road test network (level of accuracy, technological and scientific limits, opinion of the road manager, etc.)