Towards smart cities: crowdsensing-based monitoring of transportation infrastructure using in-traffic vehicles

This paper presents a novel framework for transportation infrastructure monitoring using sensors in crowdsourced moving vehicles. Vehicles equipped with various kinds of sensors have the potential to be the perfect tools for assessing the overall health condition of transportation infrastructure at the city level. Three applications of crowdsensing-based techniques are introduced in this paper to evaluate the framework. First, a methodology using the vibration data collected from a large number of smartphones in moving vehicles for bridge damage detection is presented. Lab experiments are conducted to verify the method. Second, a lab experiment investigating the feasibility of gyroscope in smartphones for road deformation measurement is described. Third, a sport camera is used to assess road surface condition. These three applications demonstrate the potential of crowdsensing-based techniques to accomplish low cost and efficient transportation infrastructure monitoring.