IRJET - Remote Sensing of Potholes and Measurement of Pothole Volume using Ultrasonic Sensors

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 07 Issue: 02 | Feb 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.34 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1436
Remote Sensing of Potholes and Measurement of Pothole Volume using
Ultrasonic Sensors
S. Ramyakala1, Mohammed Adnan Mazhar2, Mohd Akram3, Mohd Abdul Aleem4, Maaz Hussain5
1M.TECH (Structural Engineering), Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, ISL Engineering College,
Hyderabad, India
2,3,4,5 B.E Students, Dept. of Civil Engineering, ISL Engineering College, Hyderabad,, India
---------------------------------------------------------------------***----------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract - The main objective of the project is to design and
fabricate a Sensor system which will detectthePotholeson the
road and will measure the volume of those Potholes, which is
needed for the levelling process under maintenance activity of
the road.
This is done using Ultrasonic sensors mountedonthefrontofa
vehicle such as baby stroller. Sensors on thefrontofthevehicle
is allowed to sense the surface of the road, the Sensor
measures the vertical distance from the sensor to the road
surface at a rate of 20readings per second. The Sensor data is
stored in the ROM of the Arduino controller. This data is
retrieved and analyzed using either MS Excel or any Cloud
based platform for data analytics. Ultimately, after the
analysis, the volume of Potholes and correspondingly the
volume of filling can be accurately estimated.
Key Words: Arduino, UltrasonicSensor,Potholevolume,
Maintenance Cost, IOT.
1. INTRODUCTION
Roads make a crucial contributionto economic development
and bring important social benefits. They are of vital
importance in order to make a nation grow and develop.
Roads open up more areas and stimulate economic and
social development. For thosereasons,roadinfrastructureis
the most important of all public assets. But due to repeated
loading and weathering on roads, a pothole may be caused
which may affect the human life very badly.
A pothole is a structural failure in a road surface, caused by
failure primarily in asphalt pavement due to the presence of
water in the underlying soil structure and the presence of
traffic passing over the affected area.
So our project helps the society in promoting the roadsafety
and to reduce the difficulties in detecting the pothole and
also reduce the usage of human power and saves the time.
Our project addresses theidentificationandmeasurementof
its volume, Thereforethepotholeontheroad(Fig-1.Pothole)
may be identified and filled completely and hence the
accidents occur due to the pothole may be reduced.
Fig-1: Pothole
1.1 Conclusion
The objective of this project work has been framed into
chapters for exhibiting the sequential order of our project.
The basic C programming and design calculations along with
photos have been included in the following chapters.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Before starting this project, it is important to research
existing machines and the technologies used in them. This
will help us understand any existingproblemsand trytofind
solutions for these problems in such a way that it can be
implemented in our project. Going through the literature
also helps us understand the practical outcomes of the
project and how to attain the required outcomes.
2.1 Pothole-Definition
IRC established a basic requirementforthescopeofpotholes
to be repaired. An expanded definition included other
variations that would be encountered in practice.
2.2 Pavement Type
The pothole would be of flexible base or rigid composite
base.

2.3 Pothole Size Limits
1 to 6 inches (2.5 to 15 cm) in depth, 1 to 10 square feet (.09
to .93 sq m) in surface area.
2.4 Pothole Frequency and Location
Closely spaced or infrequent. Anywhere in 10to 12 foot (3 to
3.66 m) lane width but usually in wheel paths assumedto be
7 feet.
2.5 Repair Conditions
It should be the objective to make repairs in virtually any
weather condition, day or night time operation whenever
potholes develop.
2.6 Automated Patching
An operational requirement was that the system be
productive and place as much material per day as possible,
with less labour, and at lower cost. The overall design of the
system and many of the engineering decisions depend on
calculated operational and maintenance costs. There are
many sources of information for determining the cost of
various patching operations.
The primary economic drivers include the cost of materials,
labor rates, productivity of patching operations, costs of
delays, and patch lifetimes. No single source was found that
could bring all of these costs into a single comparison. For
this reason, we developed a productivity model to analyze
how pothole patching costs are related and used it as a tool
to evaluate the impact of some engineering decisions on
finalpatch cost.
2.7 Sensors
Sensors convert environmental conditions into electrical
signals. An environmental condition might be a mechanical,
optical, electrical, acoustic,magnetic,orotherphysical effect.
2.8 Benefits
The technology developed and applied through this study
will have lasting benefit to all roadway maintenance
authorities and workers by making pothole repair safer for
all, with greater performance and productivity than
traditional methods. Given a successful commercialization
program and field testing, production models could start to
become available for the benefit of the pavement
maintenance community in 1994. We think that different
configurations would be manufactured to maximize the
benefit to state highways, districts, cities, and private
contractors. Every group has special requirementsastosize,
maneuverability, level of automation, and material
capability.
2.9 Conclusion
Thus, research was done regarding this project on various
sources of literature. The many methodologies were studied
and this information has helped to complete the project
successfully.
3. SYSTEM DESIGN
3.1 Introduction
This System helps the society in promoting the road safety
and to reduce the difficultiesindetectingthepotholeandalso
reduce the usage of human power, and hence saves the time.
This is done in ensuring perfection in all the aspects such as
speed,accuracy,flexibility,safety,reliabilityandcosteffective
during the maintenance. The overall concept of the system
will be explained in this chapter.
3.2 Ultrasonic Sensor
An Ultrasonic sensor is a device that can measure the
distance to an object by using sound waves. It measures
distance by sending out a sound wave at a specific frequency
and listening for that sound wave to bounce back. By
recording the elapsed time between the sound wave being
generated and the sound wavebouncingback,itispossibleto
calculate the distance between the sonar sensor and the
object.
3.3 Arduino Atmega-328
The Arduino Nano is a small, complete, and breadboard-
friendly board based on the ATmega328 (Arduino Nano 3.0)
or ATmega168 (Arduino Nano 2.x). It has more or less the
same functionality of the Arduino, but in a different package.
It lacks only a DC power jack, and works with a Mini-B USB
cable instead of a standard one.
Fig.2: Architecture of Arduino Atmega-328

3.4 Power
The Arduino Nano can be powered via the Mini-B USB
connection, 6-20V unregulated external power supply (pin
30), or 5V regulated external power supply (pin 27).
3.5 Memory
The ATmega-168 has 16 KB of flash memory forstoringcode
(of which 2 KB is used for
Boot loader); the ATmega328 has32KB,(alsowith2KBused
for the bootloader). TheATmega- 168 has 1 KB of SRAM and
512 bytes of EEPROM (which can be read and written with
the EEPROM library); the ATmega328 has 2 KB of SRAM and
1 KB of EEPROM.
3.6 Input and Output
Each of the 14 digital pins on the Nano can be used as an
input or output, using pinMode(), digitalWrite(), and
digitalRead() functions. They operate at 5 volts. Each pin can
provide or receive a maximum of 40 mA and has an internal
pull-up resistor (disconnected bydefault)of20-50kOhms.In
addition, some pins have specialized functions:
3.7 Serial
0 (RX) and 1 (TX). Used to receive (RX) and transmit (TX)
TTL serial data. These pins are connected to the
corresponding pins of the FTDI USB-to-TTL Serial chip.
3.8 External Interrupts
2 and 3 pins can be configured to trigger an interrupt on a
low value, a rising or falling edge, or achangeinvalue.Seethe
attachInterrupt() function for details.
3.9 PWM
3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11. Provide 8-bit PWM output with the
analogWrite() function.
3.10 SPI
10 (SS), 11 (MOSI), 12 (MISO), 13 (SCK). These pins support
SPI communication, which, although provided by the
underlyinghardware,isnotcurrentlyincludedintheArduino
language.
3.11 LED
There is a built-in LED connected to digital pin 13. When the
pin is HIGH value, the though is it possible to change the
upper end of their range using the analogReference()
function LED is on, when the pin is LOW,it'soff.TheNanohas
8 analog inputs, each of which provide 10 bits of resolution
(i.e. 1024 different values). By default they measure from
ground to 5 volts.
Fig -3
3.12 Estimation Table
The following table shows the Costestimationofthisproject
TABLE 1: Cost Estimation
3.13 Conclusion
The various functionalities and principles used in the Project
have been explained. The entire working of the Sensor
system has been described. Further details willbeseeninthe
following chapters.
4. PROGRAMMING CONCEPTS
4.1 Introduction
For the detection of the pothole and to measure the vertical
distance automatically when the pothole is detected,
programming is done using Embedded C language in
Arduino portal.
4.2 Arduino Programming
int trigPin = 9;
int echoPin = 10;
void setup()
{
S.NO COMPONENTS QUANTITY COST
1 Arduino Atmega-
328
1 220
2 Ultrasonic sensors 2 300
3 Wheels 4 280
4 Metal body Fully 1000
5 Additional cost - 500
TOTAL 2300

Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(echoPin, INPUT);
}
void loop()
{
long duration, distance;
digitalWrite(trigPin,HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(1000);
digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
duration=pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);
distance =(duration/2)/29.1;
Serial.print(distance);
Serial.println("CM");
delay(10);
}
4.3 Conclusion
Thus the control of the Sensor and the Arduino Nano MC
board operations programming is done in Arduino portal
using basic C language.
5. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
We have calculated the Volume of filling or Volume of each
Pothole manually using Prismoidal formula. It can be even
done using Trapezoidal formula. Comparatively, Prismoidal
formula is more accurate andreliable and henceweuseditto
calculate the volume. In the following table, Volume
calculations for two potholes have been shown.
Experimental details:
Average Speed of the device/vehicle= 5 kmph= 1.389 m/s
Frequency of measurement by sensor= 20 per second
Interval between two successive measurements=
(1.389/20) x 100= 6.945 ~ 7 cm
S.No Pothole Vertical
distance(cm)
Interval
(cm)
Volume
(cm3)
1 1 5 7
1880.2472 10 7
3 6 7
4 4 7
5 2 6 7
1249.8236 8 7
7 7 7
Prismoidal Formula= (Common distance/3) x (Area of First
Section + Area of Last Section + 2(Sum of Even Sections) +
4(Sum of Odd Sections))
For Pothole-1:
R1=5; A1= Semi circular area with R1 as radius= 39.27 cm2
R2=10; A2= Semi circularareawithR2asradius=157.08cm2
Volume=7/3(39.27+25.13+2(56.55)+4(157.08))=1880.247
cm3
For Pothole-2:
Volume= 7/3(56.55+76.97+4(100.53))= 1249.823 cm3
6. CONCLUSIONS
Our system is efficiently designed to fulfill two main criteria;
First one being detecting potholes on the road and second is
to calculate its volume. The cost-effective system that we
have proposed will prevent accidents to a great extent. Our
proposed solution makes use of a better and more efficient
technology to detect potholes and warn the driver about
them so that he is aware a prior.
There is no existing technology for this, hence this system
would be time efficient and would consume lesser power. As
there would be database comprising of the location of the
potholes, it will notify the governmentauthoritiesandinturn
necessary action can be taken.
As we can extend the project in future by integrating it with
GPS systems and real time satellite feed, it will help the
commuters have a prior idea of the potholes on the path and
make them conscious of their route enabling a safe travel.
REFERENCES
[1] “Automation and robotics for road construction and
maintenance”, by miroslaw Skibniewski and chris
Hendrickson.

[2] Herbsman, Z., and Ellis, R. (1988). “Potential application
of robotics in highway construction." Proc, 5th Int.
Symp. On Robotics in Constr., Japan Industrial Robot
Association, Tokyo, Japan, June, 299-308.
[3] “Fabrication and Testing of AutomatedPotholepatching
machine” , by James.R.Bhlaha,
[4] Kahane B. and Rosenfeld,y.(2004).Real-time“Senseand
Act” operation for construction robots, Automation in
Construction.
[5] Shohet, I.M. and Rosenfeld,Y.(1997).Robotic mappingof
building interior-precision analysis, Automation in
Construction.
[6] Hyeun-Seok Choia, Chang-Soo Hana, Kye-young Leeb
and Sang-heon Leeb, (August 2005), Development of
hybrid robot for construction works with pneumatic
actuator, Automation in Construction, Volume 14, Issue
4, 452-459
[7] A.T.P. and Chan, W.L. (2002). LAN-basedbuilding
maintenance and surveillance robot, Automation in
Construction, 11, 6 , 619-627.
[8] Werfel, J., Bar-Yam, Y. and Nagpal, R. (2005).Building
Patterned Structures with Robot Swarms, Computer
Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,Technical
Report, Massachusetts Institute of technology,
Cambridge, USA.
BIOGRAPHIES
S. Ramyakala,
M.TECH (Structural Engineering),
Assistant Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering,
ISL Engineering College,
Hyderabad, India.
Mohammed Adnan Mazhar,
B.E student,
Deptartment of Civil Engineering,
Hyderabad, India.
Mohd Akram, B.E student,
Hyderabad, India.
Maaz Hussain, B.E student,
Hyderabad, India.
Mohd Abdul Aleem, B.E student,
Hyderabad, India.

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