The project has developed a smart fabric made from flax fibers woven together with a very thin — less than 1 mm thick — electrically conductive sensor wire. When a road is constructed, the fiber is laid down across the base layer, then the surface layer is poured over the top. A roadside sensor connected to the fabric then tracks pressure on the wire over time, and AI-powered algorithms measure the extent of the damage and when the road may need repair. This means pavement health can be assessed without disrupting traffic or causing undue destruction.
The Fraunhofer Institute is currently testing the tech on an industrial road in Germany and hopes it will one day be used more broadly.
“This won’t make roads last longer,” said Christina Haxter, a research assistant at the institute, “but it will improve efforts to monitor their condition.”
Source: New Atlas
