A number of pavement imaging systems have been developed in the last few years. Choosing the system that will best fit an agency's needs and resources is a difficult task, because of the wide variation of alternatives. However, automated pavement imaging systems technology is mature enough to be broken down into a distinct set of elements and activities. Understanding the elements, how they are combined, and the design tradeoffs between them is necessary to develop and understand criteria with which a pavement imaging system can be evaluated. A description is therefore presented of the hardware, software, and procedural elementsthat are used to acquire, store, process, report, and use pavement distress data. On the basis of this knowledge, a set of criteria is developed for evaluatingpavement imaging systems. Three example systems are used to illustrate element combinations, and to illustrate how the criteria can be used to evaluate alternatives in practice. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1260, Measurement of pavement surface condition 1990.
Abstract