Evaluation of android-based cell phone applications to measure international roughness index of rural roads

Rural roads are the backbone of a transportation system by carrying a significant volume of traffic, and connecting local roads and highway, and serving villages and cities. Local transportation agencies such as counties do maintenance of rural roads and often face financial constraints due to a limited budget. Rural road conditions are evaluated frequently since large agricultural vehicles, and environmental condition causes severe damage to these roads. Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is currently exploring the use of smartphone applications to evaluate the roughness of the rural roads in terms of International Roughness Index (IRI). In this research Roadroid and RoadBump smartphone applications are used to assess seal coated road roughness mounted in sedan car using four different types of cell phone mounts and driving at various speed limits. The data is collected from multiple rural roads using different phone mounts like a windshield, air vent, and dashboard mounts. It has been observed that the RoadBump app gives higher IRI value compared to Roadroid measured value. The IRI measured using cell phone apps are validated using Rolling Profiler and Laser Profiler, and it was observed that Roadroid provides consistent results compared with RoadBump.