ABOUT

 

NEED FOR THE PRODUCT

These potholes pose a serious safety risk to road users and cost local governments millions in compensation claims. These risks are compounded when motorists utilise these road networks at night at high speeds. In developing countries particularly, the cars used are often older models without any modern pothole detection technology installed. The presence and dangers and potholes cost governments a tremendous amount of money. The ‘Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance’ report published by the Asphalt Industry Alliance in the United Kingdom(revealed that more than £30 million was spent in compensation claims in 2013, while the World Bank reported that governments in Africa could have saved $45 billion over a decade if an additional $12 billion had been spent on timely road maintenance. This sum however, fails to fully outline the economic impact of potholes, for motorists with damaged vehicles may be unable to go to work, resulting in the inefficiency of human resource and opportunity cost for individuals who are now unable to travel.

For motorists, to encounter a pothole is a potentially fatal experience. Motorcyclists especially, since they only have stability as dictated by the two wheels in contact with the road surface. In fact, more than 11,000 people were killed by potholes and speed breakers in 2015 in India. It is irrefutable that potholes pose a serious safety concern to motorists globally. The above mentioned social and economic costs to a country because of the presence of potholes highlights that it is imperative that something needs to serve as an intermediary.

TARGET MARKET

This product benefits both the goverments and the drivers, however it addresses the drivers only. Many people in their everyday life encounter potholes on the road, some of them are careful but some are not. All of them could use our product to avoid falling into the potholes as well as notifying the goverments with their locations so they can be fixed.

MOTIVATION

The inspiration for our project comes from the personal experience of our teammate, Abba, which occurred during this past summer vacation. While on vacation in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, he witnessed the poor state of roads which were pothole ridden. On a night out with friends, he lost control of his car when trying to manoeuvre past a pothole on the highway. Although he was able to escape without damage to his car, this experience calls to mind the dangers that other drivers in similar situations encounter on a daily basis. In both developing and developed countries, road networks can be either incomplete or intermittently maintained; therefore potholes are common in such places. These potholes pose a serious safety risk to road users and could disable transport networks when accidents occur. These risks are compounded when motorists utilize these road networks at night at high speeds. In developing countries particularly, the cars used are often older models without any pothole detection technology installed. As a group, we aim to explore using SONAR detection systems to implement a cost effective pothole detection system that is widely adaptable across many different vehicles. We hope to be able to create this system that may alert the driver of an incoming pothole whilst travelling at or under 75MPH. In order to achieve the abovementioned specifications, our system is intended to be basic and reliable. In the future, more sophisticated solutions that are tailored to specific types of roads may be manufactured at a greater cost. The courage to embark on this project comes from working on the EEBUG in first year. We worked with sensors and used either a microcontroller or analogue means to analyse input data and then give output to the motors according to a predefined interpretation of inputs. Our vision for this project has strong links to our first year project and we aim to implement methods used in the first year to develop a working module for presentation day. The end product aims to be a scaled model of what will be used on vehicles on the roads.

DEVELOPMENT & COSTS

At a total of £111.95 for the prototype implementation of HoleHere, the resultant cost is extremely low. This is brought into context particularly due to the scope of impact that HoleHere will have. Affecting small communities with thousands of people and saving authorities more money than they would spend to implement and maintain HoleHere. Yet, it is unwise to think that the components are the only constituents of the cost. For a vehicle to scan the roads, as well as a system to regularly update the mapping will be required to keep HoleHere relevant to the target audience. This is another challenge we encounter in our vision of implementation .

The concept took the following steps : Measuring Distance -> code to detect the pothole -> GPS module mounting -> SD card mounting