| Sweeping Industry News Bulletin |
Elgin Sweeper and RoadBotics Offer Sweepers Equipped with AI-Based Pavement Assessment Technology to Florida MunicipalitiesElgin, IL – March 2019 Technology assesses road conditions for infrastructure improvement decisions
The partnership aims to help local government officials managing road maintenance budgets – while facing mounting pressure from citizens to address potholes and other poor road conditions – to make data-driven road improvement decisions. Keeping streets clean while helping to improve street conditionsAccording to Mike Higgins, vice president and general manager at Elgin Sweeper, the partnership with RoadBotics will enable many of the company's municipal customers across Florida to receive important data about the conditions of their roads as they sweep. "Our customers in Florida deploy Elgin Sweeper products year-round to keep their streets clean of debris and sand. These sweepers traverse every road of each municipality on a regular basis. By applying RoadBotics' technology, we turn each sweeper into a mobile data collection platform that generates a detailed pavement assessment for our customers' entire road networks. Street sweepers have always been essential tools for improving water and air quality, and with the RoadBotics partnership, our sweepers will now also help Florida communities improve the streets themselves," Higgins said. Mark DeSantis, RoadBotics' CEO, described the partnership with Elgin Sweeper as a major step forward in public infrastructure management. "More than 100 local governments across the United States have switched to our AI technology to assess their road networks because they want the reliable and objective condition data our AI platform generates. Typically, a municipality needs to wait for our team of technicians to arrive in their community to complete data collection. Now, a municipality can become a subscriber of our technology and conduct a pavement assessment immediately using Elgin Sweeper's fleet of street sweepers. With this partnership, Elgin Sweeper's products will keep streets clean while simultaneously providing city officials with critical data about the conditions of their roads and infrastructure. It's a win-win," DeSantis said. Windshield-mounted app monitors road surface
The data is then analyzed using cutting-edge machine-learning technology, which identifies road surface damage such as potholes and cracks and results in a detailed, meter-by-meter pavement assessment of the entire road network. Government public works officials then use this data to prioritize pavement maintenance in their community (see an example of a RoadBotics pavement assessment here).
"With Elgin Sweeper's products collecting data while sweeping, more municipalities will have a transparent view into the condition of their roads, and in the future, much more of their infrastructure," DeSantis said. "Such transparency represents a revolution in the way we are able to provide safer roads and infrastructure for millions of people each day. It's an ambitious goal, but Elgin Sweeper is the ideal partner to make it a reality." For more information on Elgin Sweeper Company, or to find an Elgin Sweeper dealer, please visit www.elginsweeper.com.About RoadBotics, Inc.RoadBotics, Inc., is an infrastructure technology company that has been using AI to revolutionize how governments and engineering firms make data-driven pavement management decisions. More than 100 governments across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, India and Europe already use RoadBotics to fix the right roads at the right time, while saving taxpayer dollars. Founded by Mark DeSantis, Dr. Benjamin Schmidt, and Dr. Christoph Mertz, RoadBotics originally spun out of Carnegie MellonÕs Robotics Institute and has been providing an affordable solution to infrastructure challenges faced by every government. The company uses cutting-edge deep learning and a simple smartphone to remove the subjective and expensive pavement inspection process. RoadBotics is using AI not only to improve the worldÕs roads, but also all critical infrastructure that impacts peopleÕs lives every day. For more information about the partnership between Elgin Sweeper Company and RoadBotics, Inc., or to learn how your community in Florida can access this new pavement assessment offering, please visit www.roadbotics.com/elgin/. About Elgin SweeperSold and serviced through a network of more than 100 dealer locations worldwide, Elgin Sweeper products are the sweepers of choice for a variety of general street maintenance, special industrial and airport applications. With more than 100 years of experience, Elgin Sweeper offers municipalities, contractors and industries the most sweeper options in the country, using the latest sweeping technologies – mechanical, pure vacuum, regenerative air, alternative fuel and waterless dust control. Elgin Sweeper is a subsidiary of Federal Signal Corporation's Environmental Solutions Group. For more information, visit www.elginsweeper.com. |
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RoadBotics' pavement assessment technology works by mounting a smartphone to the windshield of a vehicle Ð in this case, a street sweeper. The smartphone collects images of the road surface using the company's proprietary RoadSense app as the vehicle travels the roads.
"Elgin Sweeper is committed to getting smart city technology, like RoadBotics, into the hands of our municipal customers in Florida – to help them achieve their mission to provide safe roads for their residents," Higgins said. "We will be leveraging the knowledge and expertise of Environmental Products Group, our local dealer, to execute this initiative. Roll-out to the broader United States is expected to follow initial deployment to Florida."