RPAS BASED TRACKING OF MACHINERY USED IN ASPHALT PAVING PROCESS

Abstract. Application of rigorous construction procedures is fundamental when it comes to road construction. Nowadays, and in particular in Chile, the asphalt paving construction process is based on tradition, craftsmanship and other implicit, experience-based methods employed during road construction. This means, that the different stages of the construction process, including the paving of the road, are not controlled on time as they should, which causes that the final product does not have the ideal characteristics for which the construction materials initially were designed and manufactured. Therefore, we propose the use of tools and methodologies that allow monitoring each of the stages of the construction process in almost real-time. Our approach aims 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) present in the construction site. The observations are digitally processed by mainly binarization and thresholding. As a result, the macro texture of the asphalt surface was estimated and the trajectory of the compaction rollers was visualized. In conclusion, our results reveal that the main factor that influences the quality of the roads corresponds to the performance and operations of the compaction machinery.