Can sensors on City vehicles identify and collect real-time data on the City’s infrastructure and areas of service needed?

Sensors were retrofitted onto a Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) truck to test the reliability, usefulness, and efficiency of utilizing sensors on city vehicles to proactively plan pothole repair routes. This was a starting point for over 30 potential infrastructure use cases. SwRI’s camera/lidar platform is reliable and low-cost compared to emerging vendor solutions other cities are dependent on.

The sensor platform has been tested and adjusted to include a more user-friendly, one-button solution for SWMD drivers & more precise cameras for informing AI algorithms. Not enough potholes were available to build robust AI algorithms, so the focus for a further phase will be on identifying the next use case(s) and testing whether SWMD jeeps will be a more efficient/effective mobile sensor platform than garbage trucks.