A Novel Approach for Tracking of Construction Machinery Used in Asphalt Paving Process

Application of rigorous construction procedures is fundamental when it comes to road construction in order to guarantee high quality international standards. Today, and in particular in Chile, tradition, craftsmanship and other implicit, experience-based methods employed during road construction play a fundamental role in the asphalt paving construction process. This indicates that the many phases of the building process, including the paving of the road, are not managed on time as they should, which results in the end product lacking the optimum qualities for which the construction materials were initially designed and made. As an approach, we propose the use of tools and methodologies, based on Geomatics, which allow monitoring each of the stages of a modern construction process in almost real-time. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) during the asphalt pavement construction process by capturing images and videos during the placement of the asphalt mixture and the movement of the compaction machinery (pneumatic roller and drum roller) typically used at the construction site. The weather and wind conditions, which play a fundamental role in the feasibility of using the RPAS, also are an important aspect. The observations are digitally processed primarily through image binarization and thresholding. This allowed for the estimation of the asphalt's overall texture and the visualization of the compaction rollers' trajectory. In conclusion, our findings show that the performance and functionality of the compaction machinery correlate to the primary component that affects the condition of the roads, and that the application of RPAS can be beneficial.