Road maintenance analytics
Road maintenance activities are subject to data analytics. Data regarding a road can be received from a variety of sources including vehicle mounted sensors and network accessible services. A road treatment recommendation, such as plowing or treatment material distribution, can be automatically determined or inferred based on received data. The treatment recommendation can be conveyed to a service center or driver to facilitate road maintenance.
1. A system, comprising:
a processor coupled to a memory that includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
determine a condition of a surface based on data received from one or more sensors, services, or human inputs;
invoke an artificial neural network trained to infer a treatment recommendation for a surface based on the condition and available treatment options, wherein the artificial neural network employs continuous learning to compute a treatment recommendation;
wherein the artificial neural network receives data including but not limited to weather, surface condition, treatment material, accident reports, or routes,
wherein the artificial neural network learns to identify a treatment for a surface by way of supervised learning, unsupervised learning or reinforcement learning in conjunction with forward and backward propagation; and
trigger generation of directions with a navigation device to a surface from a current location and directional heading in response to receipt of the treatment recommendation that identifies the surface, route, and treatment.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the treatment recommendation is inferred based on residual treatment remaining on the surface.
3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that cause the processor to compute residual treatment remaining on the surface based on type of treatment, time of treatment, weather, or traffic.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the treatment recommendation is to plow the road.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more sensors is a vehicle mounted sensor that detects at least one of road surface temperature or road friction.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more sensors is a vehicle mounted sensor that detects road surface snow, ice, treatment chemical, or debris coverage.
7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that cause the processor to convey, for display on a display device, the road condition overlaid on a map.
8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that cause the processor to trigger performance by service equipment of the treatment recommendation.
9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that cause the processor to receive driver input and output the treatment recommendation by way of a voice user interface.
10. A method, comprising:
generating a treatment control signal based on a treatment recommendation associated with a surface, wherein the treatment recommendation is an output of a first machine learning model trained that infers the treatment recommendation from features corresponding to at least one of surface condition, treatment material, or weather based on historical treatment data;
transmitting the treatment control signal to control engagement or disengagement of at least one of a treatment material spreader or a plow; and
generating directions with a navigation device to the surface from a current location or directional heading of the at least one of a treatment material spreader or a plow based on the treatment recommendation, wherein the at least one of a treatment material spreader or a plow is controlled according to the treatment signal while following the directions.
11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising generating a treatment control signal for the treatment material spreader that controls a rate of disbursement of material based on the treatment recommendation.
12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising adjusting a rate of disbursement in real-time based on residual material detected on a surface such that a total amount of treatment material corresponds to the treatment recommendation.
13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising determining a current location that corresponds to the surface associated with the treatment recommendation; and generating directions from the current location to the surface.