A Review of Intelligent Methods for Unpaved Roads Condition Assessment

Conventional road condition evaluation is an expensive and time-consuming task. Therefore data collection from indirect economical methods is desired by road monitoring agencies. Recently intelligent road condition monitoring has become popular. More studies have focused on automated paved road condition monitoring, and minimal research is available to date on automating gravel road condition assessment. Road roughness information gives an overall picture of the road but does not help in identifying the type of defect; therefore, it cannot be helpful in the more specific road maintenance plan. Road monitoring can be automated using data from conventional sensors, vehicles' onboard devices, and audio and video streams from cost-effective devices. This paper reviews classical and intelligent methods for road condition evaluation in general and, more specifically, reviews studies proposing automated solutions targeting gravel or unpaved roads.