Volume Calculation Accuracy and 3D Visualization of Flexible Pavement Damage Based on Low-cost LiDAR

Identification of the current condition of road infrastructure still requires high and long survey costs and time. The development of the digital revolution changed the survey pattern for assessing road damage conditions. Unfortunately, the available technology is expensive and requires operators and unique expertise. The development of smartphones with LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology opens up new avenues for low-cost scanning applications. This study compares two smartphone devices with LiDAR sensor technology for their 3d viewing capabilities and accuracy in measuring road damage volume. This study uses a spot and continuous scan for the data collecting method. The spot scan method involves scanning the data in a fixed position parallel to the observation object. The continuous scan method gathers data by walking over an observation object simultaneously. The results showed that both devices could produce 3-D visualization; However, the image quality of the result was inadequate, and it could provide an image of objects in their initial states. The spot scan approach yields highly precise volume calculation, with an average error of 1.25%. Meanwhile, volumetric measurement based on continuous analysis gave suboptimal results with an error of 11.82%. The two low-cost LiDAR devices can offer a novel, economical, and time-saving alternative to the survey approach for assessing flexible pavement damage identification with the correct scanning method.