FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[001] The present invention relates to transportation management information system. More particularly, it relates to a system and method to maintain the heavily travelled roadways.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[002] In the recent years, with exponential increase in traffic on the roads, there is lot of pressure on continuous upkeep and maintenance of the road networks across the cities. Road authorities are losing the continuous battle for upkeep of the road because of frequent weather change, improper drainage, improper or inadequate repair work, improper design of the road, frequent cutting of the roads for laying cables and conduits, heavy traffic or heavy vehicles plying on the roads which are not designed to handle such loads. As a result, road imperfections develop continuously and need to be managed before they become dangerous.

[003] Road anomaly may be defined as misalignment in the road surface due to any cut or crack in the road due to cable laying or any pothole due to improper water drainage or some bump or uneven level due to manhole cover which leads to sudden braking or turning of the vehicle as soon as driver tries to negotiate the anomaly or sometimes if the driver is not able to negotiate then it leads sudden jerk in the vehicle.

[004] In both the above situations either vehicle damage could happen, or accident can occur due to sudden application of brakes or turning of the vehicle. In some cases, skidding of the vehicle because of sudden braking or turning over has led to fatalities. Hence, it becomes utmost important to continuously monitor the road surface condition for anomaly and make sure that the road condition should not become worse to cause accident or unfit for driving. Also, the roads can be maintained better if the anomalies are detected and fixed in the early stages due to less cost of preventive maintenance as compared to rehabilitation or upgrading or reconstruction of the roads. [005] Further, USA patent US9863928 B1 discloses a road condition detection system for identifying and monitoring road conditions, and for communicating information regarding road conditions to various users. The road condition detection system is provided for capturing data indicative of road conditions and analyzing the captured data to locate and identify various road conditions (e.g., road hazards, such as potholes, or weather conditions, such as ice). In various embodiments, the road condition detection system includes a road condition sensor array configured for being attached to a vehicle and for capturing road condition data. The captured data may be transmitted and assessed by a server configured for identifying potential road hazards or other road conditions based on the road condition data captured by the sensor array. The prior art discloses a system based on laser and vibration sensors. The system however, does not detect the severity of the road condition.

[006] Another USA patent US20180068495A1 discloses a method of detecting and identifying road surface defects is provided. Motion and position information is received from a plurality of vehicles. A profile is retrieved for a particular vehicle from a database of vehicle profiles by using an identifier of the particular vehicle. One or more criteria are identified for detecting a particular type of road surface defect based on the retrieved profile of the particular vehicle. Upon determining that the received motion and position data satisfies the identified criteria, a detection of a road surface defect of the particular type and a location associated with the detected road surface defect based on the received position information is reported. The prior art discloses method of detecting the road conditions using motion sensors and accelerometer. The method disclosed in prior art is cost intensive as multiple vehicle types and their sensor data has to be correlated based on their weight, tyre size, dimensions etc.

[007] Nowadays, various methods and systems are available based on the technologies related to sensors and laser. These methods and systems have limitations due to vibration- based sensors and high costing of laser scanning. Also, the laser sensor is not efficient in wet weather and narrow roads. Due to these limitations there is a need of cost effective method and system for detecting the road anomalies. OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION

[008] The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method and system to give prior warning to the subscribed driver or user for upcoming road issues.

[009] Another objective of the present invention is to provide a cost-effective method and system for better surveillance of road condition.

[0010] Yet another objective of the present invention is to automate the measurement of road condition.

[0011] Yet another objective of present invention is to provide safe driving assistance to its subscribed users.

[0012] Another objective of the present invention is to provide a proactive system and a method to report road anomalies regularly.

[0013] Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a method and for periodic tracking of the road conditions which may help in accessing the quality of re carpeting or patch work done.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

[0014] The present invention proposes a system for tracking the road anomalies through a dashcam mounted on plurality of vehicles. The method and system maps and identifies the road anomalies by analyzing the video of road conditions and classify the road anomalies by earmarking the road anomalies into potholes, bumps, cracks, etc. and rating them into yellow, amber and red colors based on certain parameters like dimensions of anomalies, type of anomaly, type of road on which anomaly has happened(highway, main city road, colony road, service road, etc.), GPS co-ordinates, date time stamp when the anomaly has been reported, changes if any since first time the anomaly has been reported, area to which the location belongs (sector, area, wards, zones, sub-district, tehsil/taluka, etc.). BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] A complete understanding of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the accompanying drawings, when taken in conjunction with the detailed description thereof and in which:

[0016] Figure 1 illustrates the layout of various components of the system for detecting the road anomalies.

[0017] Figures 2(a) and 2(b) illustrates the functioning of data capturing unit for detecting road anomalies.

[0018] Figures 3(a), 3(b), 3(c) and 3(d) illustrate the process of classification of road anomalies and mapping of road anomalies on to a web mapping service application.

[0019] Figures 4, 5 and 6 illustrates the process of publishing of road anomalies to users.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0020] The following presents a simplified description of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This description is not an extensive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concept of the invention in a simplified form.

[0021] Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0022] Features that are described and/or illustrated with respect to one embodiment may be used in the same way or in a similar way in one or more other embodiments and/or in combination with or instead of the features of the other embodiments. [0023] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention.

[0024] It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

[0025] It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof. The equations used in the specification are only for computation purpose.

[0026] In accordance with the present invention, Fig. 1 shows system for detecting road anomalies. The various components of the system for detecting road anomalies are data capturing unit (100), data recording unit (200), data processing unit (300), data mapping unit (400) and data publishing unit (500).

- Data Capturing and Data Recording Unit (100 and 200) may comprise a High Definition dash board camera mounted on top of a vehicle, which is driven at a speed of 20-30 km /hour at a pre-decided route set by the user. The dashboard camera may be mounted on front or back of the vehicle, pointing towards the road surface to capture video of the road surface. As the vehicle moves, the camera continuously records the road conditions through its lenses, covering a 130-degree view. The cameras provide a high definition view of the road surface and simultaneously the GPS data is recorded by the GPS data recording unit (200). Once the survey is done by the camera, the camera footage and GPS log files (.GPX) are downloaded to a central computer to compute the same.

- Data Processing Unit (300) may comprise of the central system to process the raw videos and identify and classify the road anomalies based on training dataset of the road anomalies. This process also helps in classifying the severity of the road anomaly data and notifying the road authorities and subscribed drivers in case of potential issues. This process also gets the input of the GPS data like the deceleration in speed at a particular spot or patch of the road.

- Data Mapping and Publishing Unit (400 and 500) may comprise the geographical mapping of road anomalies, creation of anomalies database and its updation based on road survey conducted, plotting of the road anomalies on any available web mapping service based on the route selected by the drivers along with the name of the roads featuring distress spots and suggesting alternate route with their anomalies information. Further, the report generates a map plotting the exact spots of road distress with color coding based on severity of road anomalies on the web map and create a heat map to show the concentration of road anomalies in the area or zone. This helps both the road authorities to take necessary actions on preventive maintenance and the subscribed drivers take the conscious decision on choosing the appropriate route.

[0027] Fig. 2(a) and 2(b) illustrate the functioning of data capturing unit (100) for detecting the road anomalies. The data capturing unit (100) comprises a dashboard camera (Dashcam), a Global Positioning System (GPS) and a storage device. The Dashcam is a video camera with high definition 1080p, 130 degree viewing angle covering all lanes of the road, Wide Dynamic range (WDR) function which adjusts according to the ambient light, built in G-sensor for image stabilization in case of shock or jerk. The Dash cam may be but not limited to, Akaso dash cam C330. Dashcam records the videos of the roads to analyses the road anomalies.

[0028] In an embodiment, the dashboard camera and GPS may be combined.

[0029] Further, Dashboard camera may pair with a communication device through available network to transfer data to the mobile application. Afterwards, the data from mobile application can be transferred to central server through any network. Alternatively, the data may be physically transferred to central server via storage device such as Secure Digital (SD) card. [0030] The GPS data recording unit (200) or a GPS logger is a device which is used to capture the GPS co-ordinates and create a stream of it so that once the whole route is recorded the data can be used to trace the vehicle’s path on the map, the date time stamp and the speed at which the vehicle has traversed the route. The GPS logger may comprise of GPS receiver, a processing and storage unit. In an exemplary embodiment, U-blox7 GPS Receiver, a Raspberry PI model 4 B and 16 GB SD card for recording the stream of GPS co-ordinates are used. The data recorded from GPS logger is stored as .GPX file. With every track being recorded as a .GPX file it is easy to play it in GPX player software which plays the recorded location position along with date time stamp and the speed. The captured .GPX files can be uploaded from Raspberry PI to central server through SSH protocol in a secure manner for processing at the central server. The GPS logger will help create a trace of the route travelled by the vehicle used for road survey. The GPS co ordinates of potholes and patches are identified and mapped to identify the accurate position of road issues.

[0031] Further, the data capturing unit (100) installed on plurality of vehicles to capture the video and GPS data. Vehicles may be but not limited to, any utility vehicle deployed by municipal committees, personal cars, or commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses etc. but preferably plying during the less traffic time in the morning when shadows are less prevalent.

[0032] Fig. 3(a), 3(b), 3(c) and 3(d) illustrate the process of classification of road anomalies and mapping of road anomalies on to a web mapping service application.

[0033] As shown in Figure 3(a), the central server is a high end desktop machine which process the data captured by data capturing unit (100). In an exemplary embodiment, a desktop machine with Intel G7 processor, Nvidia GPU, atleast 16-32 GB RAM, 512 SSD is used. The central server runs an Artificial Intelligence based algorithm to identify the road anomaly based on the trained dataset of road anomalies. Training data set categorize anomalies in different categories such as potholes, cracks, scrapped road, bumps, misalignments of manhole covers and frames. Further, the server classify the quality of roads as fair, bad or worse and determine the right speed to cross over the anomalies based on recent driver experience. It also determines the alternate travel path for users to avoid travelling over a road having anomalies. [0034] Further, as shown in figure 3(b) and 3(c), the video is processed through the data processing unit (300) to detect the road anomalies. After processing the video, image frames are recorded having bounding box corresponding to the detected anomalies along with date and time stamp. A bounding box is an imaginary box to demarcate the objects from their surroundings. In digital image processing, the bounding box is merely the coordinates of the rectangular border that fully encloses a digital image when it is placed over a page, a canvas, a screen or other similar bi-dimensional background. Based on the dimensions of the anomalies and the data of deceleration on location of the road anomaly, the road anomaly is classified into fair (yellow), bad (amber) or worse (red). If there are multiple road anomalies in the particular stretch of the road the whole patch may be marked as bad or worse.

[0035] The data mapping unit (400) classifies and labels the road condition by creating a map of road including road anomalies and provide the average deceleration in speed to negotiate the road anomaly. While the driver sees the different routes on the map for reaching the destination the driver may also choose to select the route which has less road anomalies.

[0036] In accordance with the present invention the method for detecting road anomalies is discussed herein:

Step 1: Installation of the dashboard camera and GPS logger in the vehicle.

Step 2: Starting the dashboard camera and GPS logger simultaneously when the vehicle starts surveying the road.

Step 3: Dashboard camera will record the road condition and GPS logger will start capturing the distance covered, time taken and speed at each point and creates GPS log file (.GPX file).

Step 4: The data captured through dashboard camera and GPS logger is stored in separate local storage device.

Step 5: The Data stored in the local storage device is transferred to data processing unit (300).

Step 6: The video is processed through the data processing unit (300) to detect the road anomalies and create a bounding box and capture the image frame along date and time stamp. Step 7: The data timestamp of image obtained from the (.GPX file) with road anomaly is compared with the corresponding time stamp through GPS logger and the GPS co-ordinates of the road anomalies based on corresponding GPS time stamp are determined.

Step 8: The road anomaly is further geotagged as red or amber or yellow to bring to the attention of the user about the condition and severity of the anomaly on web mapping application using the GPS coordinates which will show up as pin on map. Step 9: The said user can click on the pin to see the actual image of the road anomaly with the date time stamp. User will be able to see the severity of the anomaly and average speed for the patch based on drivers travelling at off peak hours.

SteplO: There might be a date time stamp based and area wise heat map created to segregate the different areas where there are more anomalies as compared to other areas.

[0037] Step 1 to 5 facilitate the data capturing of required data. Step 6-7 is related to the process of detecting of road anomalies. Step 8 is based on mapping of road anomalies on the web mapping service application. Steps 9-10 are facilitating the publishing of road anomalies to be detected by the users.

[0038] In accordance with the present invention the said process for classification of the road anomaly and determining its severity and accordingly determining the speed of vehicle on the same road is discussed herein:

• The severity of the road anomaly is classified based on correlation of the video of the road labelled through data mapping system, exact geotagging of the location and average decelaration of speed during off peak traffic on the same spot.

• Tagging of road anomalies in different color scheme like red or amber or yellow to bring to the attention of the road authorities about the severity of the anomaly, so that the prioritizing and planning of repair work by authorities can be carried out.

• Historical analysis of the deceleration of the speed through the same location where the anomaly is detected. • Informing the user in advance about the severity of the road anomaly and the average speed for that patch of road.

[0039] The process of classification of the road anomaly and determining its severity and the amount of deceleration of speed from the average speed on the same road is a continuous and iterative process which will keep on geotagging the new spots or changing the colors and removing the geotags if the road is re-surfaced or patch work done.

[0040] In accordance with the present invention FIG. 4, 5 and 6 illustrate the process of publishing of road anomalies to users. a) Process for visualization of the road conditions based on specific area includes:

• Collecting and processing the data of road anomalies for a particular area for a period of every 10-15 days to show the variation in data over a period of time.

• Geographically color code the sub areas within area based on number of anomalies and their severity. b) Process for identifying the route, automatic downloading of the road anomalies data for the route and providing the suggestions if the road quality is really worse consists the following:

• User switches on the web mapping service application and selects the destination and presses start.

• System identifies the current location and the destination location and selects the best route.

• System downloads the road anomalies data for the route from the current database of road anomalies and shows it visually to the subscribed driver on web mapping service application.

• The driver is given warning of the upcoming road anomaly based on its severity and subscribed driver’s speed (only on mobile application). The system also tells about the average speed at which driver should cross the particular patch of road based on past few days’ data for off peak traffic. c) Process of warning the driver (only on mobile application) in case the upcoming road anomaly is severe or driver is at higher speed as compared to average speed in off peak hour includes:

• Subscribed user’s speed is calculated based on GPS logger installed and route is detected.

• The route currently being undertaken is compared against road anomaly’s database and the average speed for past few days for off peak hour.

• Driver is given audio warning if the driver’s speed is much higher for approaching anomaly.

[0041] The method of publishing the information about upcoming road anomalies may give visual and audio alert to subscribed user in case the driver is at higher speed then prescribed speed for the respective patch.

[0042] In accordance with the present invention the advantages offered by the present invention are:

• Enabling easy survey of roads for locating distress spots, requiring minimal human involvement.

• Leveraging technology to efficiently cover a large area within the monitoring framework within less time.

• Leveraging technology to capture any other incident along the streets like dumping of construction waste, spilling of waste, collection of water etc.

• Enabling report generation that details out the near-exact location of the potholes and other distress spots on the scanned roads, thus making it convenient for the city authorities to identify the locations as well as assess the distress severity and accordingly take prompt action.

• The present invention uses a dashcam a specialized camera having wide angle of 130 degree, G sensor for image stabilization for capturing road conditions and subsequent video analysis through AI algorithm for detecting and classifying the road conditions and correlating with the data on deceleration in speed from multitude of vehicles at the same spot on the road irrespective of traffic condition and other adverse conditions for further classifying the road conditions. The present invention does all the processing centrally and focuses on analysis of pothole and road surface anomalies.

[0043] While this invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.