3D laser road profiling for the automated measurement of road surface conditions and geometry

In order to maximize road maintenance funds and optimize the condition of road networks, pavement management systems need detailed and reliable data on the status of the road network. To date, reliable crack and raveling data has proven difficult and expensive to obtain. To solve this problem, over the last 10 years Pavemetrics inc. in collaboration with INO (National Optics Institute of Canada) and the MTQ (Ministère des Transports du Québec) have been developing and testing a new 3D technology called the LCMS (Laser Crack Measurement System). The LCMS system was tested on the network to evaluate the system’s performance at the task of automatic detection and classification of cracks. The system was compared to manual results over 9000 km and found to be 95% correct in the general classification of cracks. IMUs (accelerometers and gyroscopes) were added to the LCMS 3D sensors. This has allowed the LCMS system to be used to also measure road geometry (longitudinal profile IRI, slope and cross-slope) with a very high degree of accuracy. Results and comparison tests with standard class 1 inertial profilers show that the LCMS matches and improves upon existing technology.