Automation and wireless communication technologies in road rehabilitation

The goal of the project is to survey the applicability of machine automation and wireless communication technologies in road repairing and surfacing. The focus is on the control of the worksite and road repairing and road surfacing process. This process contains design, construction, quality control and work site management. The objective is to study, how different machines, e.g. asphalt mixing plant, trucks, paver and vibrating roller, can be equipped with wireless data connections and automation systems and what are the possibilities and benefits of ICT and machine automation in this application field. During year 2006 visits to the asphalt pavement repairing sites have been arranged. Different asphalt repairing methods as well as practices in production and transportation of asphalt mass have been studied. Persons that are working in asphalt work have been interviewed. Asphalt transportation and it’s synchronisation to the asphalt spreading and asphalt production is one detected area of development. A concept of an asphalt process management system has been developed. The concept consists of connecting the trucks, asphalt pavers and the asphalt plant to a database by using wireless data communication. Process variables, such as mass temperature and transportation time, are measured in real time and saved to the database. From the information collected to a database an up-to-date view that shows the functioning of the whole process can been generated. With the better control of asphalt transportation the defects in pavement quality can be reduced. The goal is to test this concept by developing a prototype system and by arranging small scale field tests during year 2007.