A critical component of runway pavement survey is visual inspection of surface conditions. The dominant practice today is still based on manual survey, which causes delays, poses safety hazard, labor intensive and error-prone. In recent years, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (HJAIA) has been using digital imaging technology to acquire pavement images for condition survey purposes. Initially, 3-mm resolution digital technology was used. In the most recent iteration, the developer used 1-mm technology and laser imaging to cover entire runway pavements. In this paper, the authors introduce data collection techniques on lasers and imaging. The laser based imaging system works day or night without shadowing problem or the impact of sun light. A vehicle is used to collect 14-ft wide continuous images of a runway at highway speed. A methodology is used to stitch images of multiple data collection runs for the same runway, so that a single uniform virtual imagery is formed for one entire runway. GPS coordinates are also established for multiple points on the images. A procedure to conduct Pavement Condition Index (PCI) evaluation on runway pavement is presented. Tests are conducted to demonstrate that this methodology is superior to manual approach. Condition survey of runways based on the 1-mm images can be substantially more accurate and effective than any manual approach.
Rapid 1-mm Mapping of Runways in an Integrated Environment
First Congress of Transportation and Development Institute (TDI) ; 2011 ; Chicago, Illinois, United States
T&DI Congress 2011 ; 22-31
2011-03-11
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
NTIS | 1975
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1929
|NTRS | 1975
|SLUB | 1979
|Engineering Index Backfile | 1940
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