Application of Various YOLO Models for Computer Vision-Based Real-Time Pothole Detection

Pothole repair is one of the paramount tasks in road maintenance. Effective road surface monitoring is an ongoing challenge to the management agency. The current pothole detection, which is conducted image processing with a manual operation, is labour-intensive and time-consuming. Computer vision offers a mean to automate its visual inspection process using digital imaging, hence, identifying potholes from a series of images. The goal of this study is to apply different YOLO models for pothole detection. Three state-of-the-art object detection frameworks (i.e., YOLOv4, YOLOv4-tiny, and YOLOv5s) are experimented to measure their performance involved in real-time responsiveness and detection accuracy using the image set. The image set is identified by running the deep convolutional neural network (CNN) on several deep learning pothole detectors. After collecting a set of 665 images in 720 × 720 pixels resolution that captures various types of potholes on different road surface conditions, the set is divided into training, testing, and validation subsets. A mean average precision at 50% Intersection-over-Union threshold (mAP_0.5) is used to measure the performance of models. The study result shows that the mAP_0.5 of YOLOv4, YOLOv4-tiny, and YOLOv5s are 77.7%, 78.7%, and 74.8%, respectively. It confirms that the YOLOv4-tiny is the best fit model for pothole detection.

A Crowdsourcing Technique For Road Surface Monitoring Using Smarthphone Sensors

Road surface monitoring is a key factor in providing safe road infrastructure for road users. As a result, road surface condition monitoring aims to detect road surface anomalies such potholes, cracks and bumps, which affect driving comfort and on-road safety. Road surface anomaly detection is a widely studied problem. Recently, smartphone-based sensing has become popular with the increased amount of available embedded smartphone sensors. Using smartphones to detect road surface anomalies could change the way government agencies monitor and plan for road rehabilitation and maintenance. Several studies have been developed to utilize smartphone sensors (e.g., Global Positioning system (GPS) and accelerometers) mounted on a moving vehicle to collect and process the data to monitor and tag roadway surface defects. Geotagged images or videos from the roadways have also been used to detect the road surface anomalies. However, existing studies are limited to identifying roadway anomalies mainly from a single source or lack the utility of combined and integrated multi-sensors in terms of accuracy and functionality. Therefore, low-cost, more efficient pavement evaluation technologies and a centralized information system are necessary to provide the most up-to-date information about the road status due to the dynamic changes on the road surface This information will assist transportation authorities to monitor and enhance the road surface condition. In this research, a probabilistic-based crowdsourcing technique is developed to detect road surface anomalies from smartphone sensors such as linear accelerometers, gyroscopes and GPS to integrate multiple detections accurately. All case studies from the proposed detection approach showed an approximate 80% detection accuracy (from a single survey) which supports the inclusiveness of the detection approach. In addition, the results of the proposed probabilistic-based integration approach indicated that the detection accuracy can be further improved by 5 to 20% with multiple detections conducted by the same vehicle along the same road segments. Finally, the development of the web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) platform would facilitate the real-time and active monitoring of road surface anomalies and offer further improvement of road surface quality control in large cities like Toronto.

A Crowdsourcing Technique For Road Surface Monitoring Using Smarthphone Sensors

Road surface monitoring is a key factor in providing safe road infrastructure for road users. As a result, road surface condition monitoring aims to detect road surface anomalies such potholes, cracks and bumps, which affect driving comfort and on-road safety. Road surface anomaly detection is a widely studied problem. Recently, smartphone-based sensing has become popular with the increased amount of available embedded smartphone sensors. Using smartphones to detect road surface anomalies could change the way government agencies monitor and plan for road rehabilitation and maintenance. Several studies have been developed to utilize smartphone sensors (e.g., Global Positioning system (GPS) and accelerometers) mounted on a moving vehicle to collect and process the data to monitor and tag roadway surface defects. Geotagged images or videos from the roadways have also been used to detect the road surface anomalies. However, existing studies are limited to identifying roadway anomalies mainly from a single source or lack the utility of combined and integrated multi-sensors in terms of accuracy and functionality. Therefore, low-cost, more efficient pavement evaluation technologies and a centralized information system are necessary to provide the most up-to-date information about the road status due to the dynamic changes on the road surface This information will assist transportation authorities to monitor and enhance the road surface condition. In this research, a probabilistic-based crowdsourcing technique is developed to detect road surface anomalies from smartphone sensors such as linear accelerometers, gyroscopes and GPS to integrate multiple detections accurately. All case studies from the proposed detection approach showed an approximate 80% detection accuracy (from a single survey) which supports the inclusiveness of the detection approach. In addition, the results of the proposed probabilistic-based integration approach indicated that the detection accuracy can be further improved by 5 to 20% with multiple detections conducted by the same vehicle along the same road segments. Finally, the development of the web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) platform would facilitate the real-time and active monitoring of road surface anomalies and offer further improvement of road surface quality control in large cities like Toronto.

Road Surface Monitoring Using Smartphone Sensors: A Review

Road surface monitoring is a key factor to providing smooth and safe road infrastructure to road users. The key to road surface condition monitoring is to detect road surface anomalies, such as potholes, cracks, and bumps, which affect driving comfort and on-road safety. Road surface anomaly detection is a widely studied problem. Recently, smartphone-based sensing has become increasingly popular with the increased amount of available embedded smartphone sensors. Using smartphones to detect road surface anomalies could change the way government agencies monitor and plan for road maintenance. However, current smartphone sensors operate at a low frequency, and undersampled sensor signals cause low detection accuracy. In this study, current approaches for using smartphones for road surface anomaly detection are reviewed and compared. In addition, further opportunities for research using smartphones in road surface anomaly detection are highlighted.

Road Surface Monitoring Using Smartphone Sensors: A Review

Road surface monitoring is a key factor to providing smooth and safe road infrastructure to road users. The key to road surface condition monitoring is to detect road surface anomalies, such as potholes, cracks, and bumps, which affect driving comfort and on-road safety. Road surface anomaly detection is a widely studied problem. Recently, smartphone-based sensing has become increasingly popular with the increased amount of available embedded smartphone sensors. Using smartphones to detect road surface anomalies could change the way government agencies monitor and plan for road maintenance. However, current smartphone sensors operate at a low frequency, and undersampled sensor signals cause low detection accuracy. In this study, current approaches for using smartphones for road surface anomaly detection are reviewed and compared. In addition, further opportunities for research using smartphones in road surface anomaly detection are highlighted.

Detection of Road-Surface Anomalies Using a Smartphone Camera and Accelerometer

Road surfaces should be maintained in excellent condition to ensure the safety of motorists. To this end, there exist various road-surface monitoring systems, each of which is known to have specific advantages and disadvantages. In this study, a smartphone-based dual-acquisition method system capable of acquiring images of road-surface anomalies and measuring the acceleration of the vehicle upon their detection was developed to explore the complementarity benefits of the two different methods. A road test was conducted in which 1896 road-surface images and corresponding three-axis acceleration data were acquired. All images were classified based on the presence and type of anomalies, and histograms of the maximum variations in the acceleration in the gravitational direction were comparatively analyzed. When the types of anomalies were not considered, it was difficult to identify their effects using the histograms. The differences among histograms became evident upon consideration of whether the vehicle wheels passed over the anomalies, and when excluding longitudinal anomalies that caused minor changes in acceleration. Although the image-based monitoring system used in this research provided poor performance on its own, the severity of road-surface anomalies was accurately inferred using the specific range of the maximum variation of acceleration in the gravitational direction.