Automatic Detection and Notification of Potholes and Humps on Roads to Aid Drivers

One of the major problems in developing countries is maintenance of roads. Well maintained roads contribute a major portion to the country´s economy. Identification of pavement distress such as potholes and humps not only helps drivers to avoid accidents or vehicle damages, but also helps authorities to maintain roads. This paper discusses previous pothole detection methods that have been developed and proposes a cost-effective solution to identify the potholes and humps on roads and provide timely alerts to drivers to avoid accidents or vehicle damages. Ultrasonic sensors are used to identify the potholes and humps and also to measure their depth and height, respectively. The proposed system captures the geographical location coordinates of the potholes and humps using a global positioning system receiver. The sensed-data includes pothole depth, height of hump, and geographic location, which is stored in the database (cloud). This serves as a valuable source of information to the government authorities and vehicle drivers. An android application is used to alert drivers so that precautionary measures can be taken to evade accidents. Alerts are given in the form of a flash messages with an audio beep.