NIRA Dynamics and the City of Linköping work together for smarter road maintenance
NIRA Dynamics and the City of Linköping are currently engaged in an exciting project that relies on ground-breaking innovations in a dynamic collaboration between the business sector and the public sector. The project aims to gain access to data in real time, for example, to determine how slippery the roads are in winter or whether there is any wear and tear on the road that needs to be fixed before it becomes dangerous for motorists.
NIRA Dynamics works to make our vehicles and roads safer. They are among the world leaders in tire pressure monitoring. The Linköping company is also a leader in the area of "Road perception", i.e., detecting road conditions where cars are driving. Is it slippery, are there speed bumps or maybe potholes in the road?
In May 2022, NIRA started a joint project with the City of Linköping, specifically to collect data about roads and road maintenance.
“It occurred to us that cars are like traveling weather stations with all the technology they are equipped with, with well-developed software that measures everything from the air temperature, precipitation via the windscreen wiper sensor, to the roughness of the asphalt and whether a road has a pothole or is very wet. With the help of the data that is collected, it is also possible to calculate the road surface temperature by using a machine learning model. By collecting all that data, it should be possible to better manage the roadways”, says Johan Petersson, product manager at NIRA.
The company collects anonymous data about the road conditions and road status from ordinary passenger cars that are out on the roadways. Through this, the City of Linköping gets access to data in real time to determine if, for example, the roads are slippery in the winter, so that the city can take maintenance measures before the road becomes dangerous for motorists.
“We thought it sounded very interesting when we were asked to participate in the project. The Swedish Transport Administration has weather stations set up in different locations across Sweden that monitor road conditions. In Linköping, there is one north of Tornby. But using anonymous cars that travel around on the roads takes things to a completely different level, where we get real-time information on the status of the roads around the country, for example, when it comes to winter road maintenance”, emphasizes Dennis Höijer, group manager for land and management at the operation and maintenance unit in the City of Linköping.
A complement to weather forecasts
NIRA has approximately 45,000 cars connected with this software from the Volkswagen Group in Sweden and between 1.5 and 2 million cars connected in other countries.
“In this project, we are also collaborating with Thormans Entreprenad in Linköping, who used a web application to access the data collected from cars and used it when they performed winter road maintenance for the city. It has been very rewarding, and they also offer a lot of feedback. In this way, we learn to adapt the system in a way that helps them”, says Johan.
When it comes to road maintenance, for example, when roads are slippery or during snowfall, weather forecasts are always used for preventive purposes and for planning.
“What would be really interesting would be to link weather forecasts with our weather data in real time, which would be very precise. Roads can be very different from each other, depending on, for example, highly localized snow conditions”, says Johan.
“This technology can also be a great tool for follow-up to optimize our operations. Then we would be able to analyse, for example, whether the right amount of salt was used and whether a particular action was carried out at the right time”, says Dennis Höijer.
“After the project is completed in May 2023, there will be an evaluation. This is a very exciting area, and we hope that it can improve winter road maintenance in both Sweden and other countries”, says Johan Petersson.