The Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, has tendered a service contract to auscultate the road markings of the State Highway Network, for a budget of 1.4 million euros. The novelty of this tender is the measure of contrast of the marks, beyond the traditional measure of reflectrometry.

The reflectrometry measurement is the standard applied for many years in the traditional inspections of the condition of road markings. The reflectrometry measurement allows to check the status and the quality of its painting. The logic of this measure is simple because there is a correlation between the value obtained by reflectrometry and the quality of the marking’s paint. However, it is a measure in which there are various factors that are not taken into account.

The problem of the visibility of the lines goes beyond the quality of the paint itself. The color of the pavement close to the paint, the color of the paint itself, or the presence of water, snow, ice, or other elements on the pavement, can cause confusion in the visibility of the lines. These factors mean that the perception of these lines is not the same during the day in sunny conditions, at night, or in times of rain. The reflectrometry is the same, but the perception is different.

The contrast measurements allow to analyze how the human eye will perceive those paintings on the pavement. Its evaluation through Artificial Vision technologies facilitates the evaluation in 100% of the lines (not only selectively or segmented as up to now). And not only for human; for driver assistance systems (ADAS) it is essential to ensure the continuity of detection, since an instantaneous loss of the line can imply a line loss.

Do you know how to measure the contrast of the lines in 100% of the sectors and in any condition? At ASIMOB we can help you.

Here you can read the MITMA press release announcing the new tender: MITMA.