Technology
Computer vision for infrastructure inspection
Using imagery from vehicles, drones, and fixed cameras to find pavement defects, sign damage, and asset conditions at scale.
Public works departments inspect roads, signs, sidewalks, streetlights, and facilities on cycles limited by staff time. Computer vision models can review imagery collected by vehicles, drones, and fixed cameras and flag conditions for follow-up, changing inspection from sampling to coverage.
Uses
- Pavement distress detection and condition scoring from vehicle-mounted cameras
- Sign and marking inventory and condition
- Sidewalk obstructions and accessibility barriers
- Streetlight outages from night imagery
- Vegetation encroachment on rights of way
- Facility and bridge inspection support from drone imagery
- Illegal dumping and graffiti detection
How it works
Imagery is collected with location data. A model trained on labeled examples detects and classifies conditions. Detections are mapped, deduplicated, and turned into work orders or inspection tasks. Inspectors verify a sample and their corrections improve the model.
What to expect
Detection accuracy varies by condition type, lighting, and image quality. Well-defined defects with clear visual signatures work well; subtle or ambiguous conditions need human review. The value is in prioritization and coverage, not in replacing inspectors.
Data and privacy
Street-level imagery captures people, vehicles, and property. Adopt a policy on retention and on blurring faces and plates, and publish it.
Integration
Detections should land in the asset management and work order systems through APIs, with the imagery linked, so crews act on them in their normal workflow.
Procurement
Ask for accuracy on your road types and conditions, imagery collection options, integration with your asset system, data ownership, and privacy handling. Pilot on a district where recent manual inspection results exist for comparison.
Where HQT fits
Data pipelines from collection to work order, model evaluation, integration, and dashboards that show condition trends for capital planning.