IoT Sensor Network Tested to Manage Rural Roads

A consortium of research partners is attempting to establish a network of IoT sensors across 6,000 miles of Scotland’s more remote roads, using this digital map to plan maintenance and identify hazards.

The government-backed project is intended to reduce cost and time pressures associated with manual checks of the road, offering real-time monitoring of road conditions including temperature and moisture levels.

So far, IoT sensors have been deployed in test locations in two cities.

For the project, sensor startup DigiFlec – which deploys Lidar 3D sensors from Velodyne –  is working alongside Scotland’s innovation center Censis and Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) for the digital map, which is set to run along FLS’ road network.

“Local authorities and landowners currently face a paucity of information about the conditions on their roads,” said Steven Gillan, director at DigiFlec. “A big part of the reason for that is the time and costs involved in gathering data. This makes it difficult to make good decisions about where to focus efforts, and maximize time, material and resources.”

The project comes as part of the Scottish government’s CivTech 6 accelerator program, a plan to develop a digital transport network management interface. The program received $7 million from the government at the beginning of the year to go towards initiatives to improve public sector services. Digital tools such as IoT imaging and sensing are becoming commonplace in these projects.

“This CivTech project demonstrates the real difference that IoT, imaging and sensing technologies can make, particularly when they are combined,” said Rachael Wakefield, business development manager at Censis.