Research On Pavement Rutting Detection Technique Based On 3D Line Laser Technology

As the pavement construction period has passed, China is moving quickly into the period of pavement preservation and management. Transportation management agencies will face long-term tasks of pavement maintenance and management with the rapid development of highway mileage. Comprehensive and accurate, fast and reliable pavement distress data is the key to scientific pavement management. As one of the main asphalt pavement distress, rutting not only affect driving safety and comfort directly, but also impact the structural integrity and stability of the road. Therefore, accurate and reliable test data is an important foundation for pavement condition evaluation and decision-making.Current rutting artificial ruler measurement method which is widely used at home and abroad has gradually been replaced by multi-point laser detection system due to time-consuming, laborious and high risks. However, laser technology is influenced by the number of laser points and lateral offset. This leads to underestimate of rutting depth and misjudgment of rutting severity. At the same time, multi-point laser measurement system is difficult to obtain a three-dimensional microscopic rutting and extract the multi-dimensional characteristics of rutting. Rutting depth cannot provide full in-depth and accurate information for managers, which will restrict the development of scientific roadway management.In this paper, the advanced commercial 3D line laser device was used. Firstly, the principle and characteristic of 3D line laser detection are analyzed based on a large collection of relevant literature and documentations. The influence of line laser intervals and the height of the laser equipment on 3D imaging characteristics are analyzed based on lab experiments. Secondly, different testing objects such as marble, cement, asphalt and wood boards(for calibration) are selected to analyze the material characteristics’ influence on laser point cloud data. The accuracy and repeatability of laser point cloud data are studied. Considering different pavement colors(black, yellow, white) and texture depths, this paper analyzes the surface colors and texture depths’ influence on laser point cloud data. Thirdly, the characteristic of outliers during the process of the detection are analyzed. Through the outdoor and indoor experiments, the possible causes of missing and mutated points are studied. An extraction software was developed based on MATLAB platform, to extract rutting multidimensional feature. The accuracy of this software is verified using laboratory tests.This paper is a preliminary discussion of 3D line laser’s application on pavement management. It analyzes the 3D point cloud characteristics and multidimensional features of rutting. It is the 3D line laser technology applicability of the preliminary inquiry in the field of road management, and to improve our existing rut analytical techniques, to promote the scientific management of road maintenance and construction.