Online surveillance of roads and rail for preventing accidents and sabotage

We often hear the news of accidents due to damaged road surface  or dislocation of rails. There are many cases of landmine blasts resulting in heavy casualty on the roads  in the Naxalite affected remote areas.

Visual surveillance of the road and rails for detecting any fault or any sabotage activity is not effective due to sheer long stretches of road and rails and impossibility of  physical inspection through security guards. The only effective and economical option is to set up online surveillance system with the help of CCTV cameras, laser scanners and frequent satellite imagery service. Potholes on the road, implantation of landmines could be easily and readily detected by analyzing road surface profiles.  If the entire road and rail stretches are continuously monitored by these unmanned sensor devices, any abnormal changes in the road surface  or rail alignment can be detected, sabotage activities can be identified and major accidents can be averted.

The CCTV cameras could located on electric poles on both sides of road or rails. There should be extra survellience cameras near culverts, sharp bends and thick jungle.

In addition to CCTV cameras, actual road surface profiles can be scanned by moving vehicle equipped with laser scanner.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques have come up with a car-mounted laser scanner the size of a shoe box, that can survey the contours of road surfaces at speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph).

Fraunhofer's actual image of its road-scanning laser technology

( Ref:  http://www.gizmag.com/road-laser-scanner/27345/)

 The orientation and position of the vehicle is accomplished using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and an inertial measurement system. Pavement Profile Scanner (or PPS) so developed by the institute  surveyed 15,000 km of road since mid-2012, in which time it has proven cheaper, faster and more accurate than existing systems which require hefty attachments to the carrier vehicle.

Online survelliance system for roads and rails can prove to be a much better,  effective and economical preventive measure to avoid accidents and detect any suspicious sabotage activities.
 The system will also help in better traffic control, rescue operations and ensure safety to passengers.