Road Management Services PLC, a subsidiary of Iridium (ACS group), is responsible for the maintenance of 20,225 km of the A13 motorway leading to London from the East and 3,624 km of Docklands Road. Its contract requires the inventory of road assets (traffic signs, road markings, protective barriers and analysis of the state of the pavement) on roads with a high flow of traffic.

After Iridium’s good experience with the Autonomous Road Inspector on the roads of Eix Diagonal in Catalonia, they decided to apply the service in London. Any differences for the Autonomous Inspector for driving on the left?

Every time we start in a new country, the biggest challenge is adapting the Computer Vision model to the country’s signage system. We already have more than 600 signs in the model, but in all countries there is some original signs. In this case, in the United Kingdom, code matching and a minimal adjustment in code classification were carried out, since almost all of them fit within the European and American standards, which we have implemented.

For other assets such as protective barriers, lane markings and pavement condition, the Computer Vision models are the same, regardless of the country.

The service has allowed the inventory of road assets to be updated quickly and accurately and a condition analysis detecting signs with stickers, graffiti, partially covered, deteriorated or discoloured signs, deteriorated road markings, deteriorated or inadequate protective barriers and road quality indices have been evaluated, with which actions on the pavement can be planned.