Turning smartphones into road repair tools

Potholes…nobody likes them. But what if your phone could help make them disappear?

Monash engineers have found a way to turn everyday smartphones into road health monitors. A faster, cheaper alternative to traditional surveys, here's how the technology works:

• Your phone detects bumps as you drive
• Data is fed into an app
• The app builds a live map of road conditions in real time

Led by Dr Yihai Fang at the ARC Smart Pavements Australia Research Collaboration (SPARC Hub), a team from Civil and Environmental Engineering has trialled the idea with 25 vehicles on Melbourne roads. Now they’re looking to scale up with road authorities.

Dr Fang says “The more data we get from different vehicles, phones and road conditions the stronger the system becomes. One day this could create a city-wide road health map powered by everyday drivers.”

Read the research paper in IEEE Xplore here.

Listen to an interview with ABC Radio here.