Learning road degradation with asphalt-integrated sensor fabric

Efficient monitoring of the condition of road infrastructure is essential for the provision of a reliable and sustainable mobility and transportation network. The assessment of the structural condition of the asphalt base layer is particularly important in this respect. This paper presents a data-driven approach for an innovative road monitoring system for the non-destructive and continuous determination of the degree of degradation of asphalt roads. The innovation of the project lies in the application of Artificial Intelligence methods to derive the degradation state of the asphalt base layer on the basis of sensor measurements obtained by means of a novel hybrid sensor fabric integrated directly into the asphalt base layer. The proposed Machine Learning-based diagnosis relies heavily on the quality of sensor data. Therefore, we introduce a new method to evaluate the significance of sensor measurements using time series analysis techniques. The feasibility and functionality of the approach is demonstrated through extensive experiments by embedding the sensor material in real asphalt specimens, which are subject to controlled load tests.