Research on Pavement Roughness Evaluation Method Based on Smartphones

Authors

SIRIGULENG BAI, College of Sciences, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010051, China
YILI GUOQI, School of Inner Mongolia Transportation and Municipal Engineering, Inner Mongolia Technical College of Construction, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010070, China
A RONG, College of Energy and Transportation Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010018, China
GUO Guoying, School of Inner Mongolia Transportation and Municipal Engineering, Inner Mongolia Technical College of Construction, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010070, China
WANG Jing, School of Inner Mongolia Transportation and Municipal Engineering, Inner Mongolia Technical College of Construction, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010070, China

Corresponding Author

毅力果奇, 男, 博士研究生. E-mail: yiliguoqi@163.com

Abstract

To address the low efficiency and high cost of current detection methods,as well as the insufficient accumulation of pavement damage data on rural low-grade roads,this study developed a vehicle vibration data acquisition application based on smartphones and proposed a conversion method for calculating an index equivalent to the international roughness index (IIRI).Vertical acceleration signals collected during vehicle travel were proposed through high-pass filtering and denoising to calculate the vertical displacement,from which a converted I'IRI was derived.Experimental results show that although the data collected by smartphones has slightly lower accuracy than that collected by professional detection equipment,the proposed I'IRI exhibits a high correlation with the traditional I'IRI,effectively reflecting pavement roughness characteristics.This method provides an economical,efficient,and convenient solution for roughness detection on low-grade roads,with significant application value for large-scale pavement condition monitoring and preliminary screening.

Publication Date

12-24-2025

DOI

10.14048/j.issn.1671-2579.2025.06.007

First Page

58

Last Page

66

Submission Date

December 2025

Recommended Citation

BAI, SIRIGULENG; GUOQI, YILI; RONG, A; Guoying, GUO; and Jing, WANG (2025) "Research on Pavement Roughness Evaluation Method Based on Smartphones," Journal of China & Foreign Highway: Vol. 45: Iss. 6, Article 7.
DOI: 10.14048/j.issn.1671-2579.2025.06.007
Available at: https://zwgl1980.csust.edu.cn/journal/vol45/iss6/7

Reference

[1]交通运输部.2022年交通运输行业发展统计公报 [J].中国水运,2023 (7):29-33.Ministry of Transport of the People ’s Republic of China.Statistical bulletin of transportation industry development in 2022 [J].China Water Transport,2023 (7):29-33.
[2]交通运输部公路科学研究院.公路技术状况评定标准:JTG 5210—2018 [S].北京:人民交通出版社,2019.Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport.Highway performance assessment standards:JTG 5210—2018 [S].Beijing:China Communications Press,2019.
[3]RYU S K,KIM T,KIM Y R.Feature-based pothole detection in two-dimensional images [J].Transportation Research Record:Journal of the Transportation Research Board,2015,2528 (1):9-17.
[4]KARUPPUSWAMY J,SELVARAJ V,GANESH M M,et al.Detection and avoidance of simulated potholes in autonomous vehicle navigation in an unstructured environment [J].International Society for Optics and Photonics,2000,4197:70-80.
[5]KOCH C,BRILAKIS I.Pothole detection in asphalt pavement images [J].Advanced Engineering Informatics,2011,25(3):507-515.
[6]CHANG K T,CHANG J R,LIU J K.Detection of pavement distresses using 3D laser scanning technology[C]//Cancun:Proceeding of the 2005 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering,2005:1-11.
[7]DU Y,ZHOU Z,WU Q,et al.A pothole detection method based on 3D point cloud segmentation [C] // Osaka:12th International Conference on Digital Image Processing，2020.
[8]惠冰,郭牧,王洲,等.基于三维激光技术的路面坑槽多维度指标检测 [J].同济大学学报 (自然科学版 ),2018,46(1):60-66.HUI Bing,GUO Mu,WANG Zhou,et al.Multi-dimensional index detection of potholes based on 3D laser technology[J].Journal of Tongji University (Natural Science ),2018,46(1):60-66.
[9]GAO J,YUAN D D,TONG Z,et al.Autonomous pavement distress detection using ground penetrating radar and region-based deep learning [J].Measurement,2020,164:108077.
[10]MA J,ZHAO X M,HE S H,et al.Review of pavement detection technology [J].Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering,2017,17(5):121-137.
[11]SAYERS M W,GILLESPIE T D,QUEIROZ C A V.The international road roughness experiment:Establishing correlation and calibration standard for measurements [R].World Bank Technical Paper,1986.
[12]PARK K,THOMAS N E,WAYNE LEE K.Applicability of the international roughness index as a predictor of asphalt pavement condition [J].Journal of Transportation Engineering,2007,133(12):706-709.
[13]YAO Z K.Pavement management system [M].Beijing:China Communications Press,1993.
[14]GRIFFIN M J.Discomfort from feeling vehicle vibration[J].Vehicle System Dynamics,2007,45(7/8):679-698.
[15]吕文江,张震.考虑车辆悬架的加速度与国际平整度指数的理论关系研究 [J].中外公路,2023,43(4):67-74.LYU Wenjiang,ZHANG Zhen.Study on theoretical relationship between acceleration of vehicle suspension and international flatness index [J].Journal of China & Foreign Highway,2023,43(4):67-74.
[16]SUN L.Simulation of pavement roughness and IRI based on power spectral density [J].Mathematics and Computers in Simulation,2003,61(2):77-88.
[17]LI J,ZHANG Z W,GAO X,et al.Relation between power spectral density of road roughness and international roughness index and its application [J].International Journal of Vehicle Design,2018,77(4):247.
[18]BARBOSA R S.Vehicle dynamic response due to pavement roughness [J].Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering,2011,33(3):302-307.
[19]XU H L,SUN J D,REN H H,et al.Nonlinear numerical model for a vehicle-pavement coupled system considering pavement roughness [J].Journal of Highway and Transportation Research and Development (English Edition ),2019,13(3):8-13.
[20]GONZÁLEZ A,O’BRIEN E J,LI Y Y,et al.The use of vehicle acceleration measurements to estimate road roughness [J].Vehicle System Dynamics,2008,46(6):483-499.
[21]DOUANGPHACHANH V,ONEYAMA H.A study on the use of smartphones under realistic settings to estimate road roughness condition [J].EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking,2014,2014(1):114.
[22]NAGAYAMA T,MIYAJIMA A,KIMURA S,et al.Road condition evaluation using the vibration response of ordinary vehicles and synchronously recorded movies[C]//San Diego:Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil,Mechanical,and Aerospace Systems 2013,2013.
[23]WANG W,GUO F.RoadLab:Revamping road condition and road safety monitoring by crowdsourcing with smartphone app [C]//Washington,D.C.：Presented at 95th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board,2016.
[24]章洋,何莉,汤青洲,等.基于智能手机的农村公路路面破损检测方法 [J].中外公路,2023,43(2):51-57.ZHANG Yang,HE Li,TANG Qingzhou,et al.Detection method of rural road pavement damage based on smart phone [J].Journal of China & Foreign Highway,2023,43(2):51-57.
[25]杜豫川,刘成龙,吴荻非,等.基于车载多传感器的路面平整度检测方法 [J].中国公路学报,2015,28(6):1-5.DU Yuchuan,LIU Chenglong,WU Difei,et al.Pavement roughness measurement method based on automobile mounted multiple sensors [J].China Journal of Highway and Transport,2015,28(6):1-5.
[26]张金喜,王佩荣,曹丹丹,等.基于行车振动的路面车辙评价方法可行性研究 [J].中外公路,2023,43(4):45-51.ZHANG Jinxi,WANG Peirong,CAO Dandan,et al.Feasibility study of pavement rutting evaluation method based on driving vibration [J].Journal of China & Foreign Highway,2023,43(4):45-51.
[27]VIENGNAM D,HIROYUKI O.A study on the use of smart-phones for road roughness condition estimation [J].Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies,2013 (10):1551 -1564.
[28]STRIBLING J W,BUTTLAR W G,ISLAM S，et al.Use of smartphone to measure pavement roughness across multiple vehicle types at different speeds [C] //Washington D.C.：TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers Report,2017.
[29]SOUZA V M A.Asphalt pavement classification using smartphone accelerometer and complexity invariant distance [J].Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence,2018,74:198-211.
[30]ALEADELAT W,KSAIBATI K.Estimation of pavement serviceability index through Android-based smartphone application for local roads [J].Transportation Research Record:Journal of the Transportation Research Board,2017,2639:129-135.
[31]CHEN C S,CHOU C P,CHEN A C.Viscoelastic model for estimating the international roughness index by smartphone sensors [C] //Washington D.C.：Presented at 96th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board,2017.
[32]ISLAM S,BUTTLAR W G,ALDUNATE R G,et al.Use of cellphone application to measure pavement roughness [C]//Orlando:Proceedings of the Second Congress of the Transportation and Development Institute of ASCE,2014.
[33]WANG G Y,BURROW M,GHATAORA G.Study of the factors affecting road roughness measurement using smartphones [J].Journal of Infrastructure Systems,2020,26(3):04020020.
[34]CHEN G H.Research on key technologies of intelligent evaluation of pavement driving quality based on smart phone [D].Beijing:Beijing University of Technology,2022.
[35]LI F H,BAO Y,WANG D D,et al.Smartphones for sensing[J].Science Bulletin,2016,61(3):190-201.
[36]DU R H,QIU G,GAO K,et al.Abnormal road surface recognition based on smartphone acceleration sensor [J].Sensors,2020,20(2):451.
[37]HANSON T,CAMERON C,HILDEBRAND E.Evaluation of low-cost consumer-level mobile phone technology for measuring international roughness index (IRI) values [J].Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering,2014,41(9):819-827.
[38]SINGH G,BANSAL D,SOFAT S,et al.Smart patrolling:An efficient road surface monitoring using smartphone sensors and crowdsourcing [J].Pervasive and Mobile Computing,2017,40:71-88.
[39]TOMISAWA K,ENDOH T,OOSHIMA T,et al.Evaluation method of pavement surface unevenness with acceleration measured on a vehicle axle [J].Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers,Ser.E1 (Pavement Engineering ),2011，67（3）:51-58.
[40]KOICHI YAGI.Improvement of the road bump detection method by using smartphone and an application result of TOHOKU earthquake [C] //Tokyo：11th Asia-Pacific ITS Forum 2011.
[41]NISHIZAKA R,FUKUWA N.A study on the properties of vehicle dynamic loads on traffic-induced vibration problems:A study of traffic-induced vibration problems on an asphalted road part 1 [J].Journal of Structural Construction Engineering (Transactions of AlJ ),1997,62(491):65-72.
[42]YU Z S.Automotive theory [M].Third Edition.Beijing:Mechanical Industry Press,2002.
[43]TOMIYAMA K,NAKAMURA H,MASHITO H,et al.Verification of road profilers and its procedure based on field experiment results [J].Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineers,Ser.E1 (Pavement Engineering ),2015,71(3):9-16.