Project: #17 Up-to-date city maps for modeling, planning, and assistive technologies Progress Report - Reporting Period Ending: Sept. 30, 2017 Principal Investigator: Christoph Mertz Status: Active Start Date: Jan. 1, 2017 End Date: Aug. 31, 2018 Research Type: None Grant Type: Research Grant Program: UTC FAST Act Grant Cycle: 2017 TSET UTC Progress Report (Last Updated: Oct. 5, 2017, 10:03 a.m.) % Project Completed to Date: 35 % Grant Award Expended: 30 % Match Expended & Document: 30 USDOT Requirements Anticipated Research Outcomes We anticipate to have several systems developed that can detect, classify, and measure parts of the road infrastructure. Anticipated Impacts The long term goal is to have a complete, detailed, and up-to-date map of all objects and structures visible from a vehicle. This information can be used for inventory and assessment of road infrastructure and as input for driver assistant systems and autonomous vehicles. It will provide data to significantly improve road asset maintenance and management as well as improve the robustness and performance of intelligent vehicles. Did research results confirm or change practice? This research has the potential to significantly change the practice of road maintenance. Up-to-date data on road damage could enable the maintenance department to do frequent preventive maintenance which is much more cost effective than waiting for roads to fail. Web Links Project web link: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~road/ Web page of startup company that was spun out of predecessor project: www.roadbotics.com News article "CMU Technology Wins Le Monde International Smart Cities Competition": http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2017/june/smart-cities-competition.html RoadBotics selected for German-Indian startup bootcamp: https://yourstory.com/2017/03/bosch-dna-india/ 1st runner up in Le Monde International Smart Cities Competition in the competition's urban innovation category http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2017/june/smart-cities-competition.html RoadBotics second place at SXSW: https://www.facebook.com/carnegiemellonu/videos/10155173072936388/ PBS Newhour report "How Pittsburgh is test driving tech to make your commute smarter": http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/pittsburgh-test-driving-tech-make-commute-smarter/ Issues In order to measure the retro-reflectivity of traffic signs directly, we had to develop an app that uses the flash of a smartphone as the illumination and the camera as the brightness sensor. Accomplishments The startup RoadBotics was founded in 2016 with the technology of earlier work of this project. Here is a list of some of its achievements and wins in competitions: Selected for German-Indian startup bootcamp. https://yourstory.com/2017/03/bosch-dna-india/ 1st runner up in Le Monde International Smart Cities Competition in the competition's urban innovation category http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2017/june/smart-cities-competition.html second place at SXSW https://www.facebook.com/carnegiemellonu/videos/10155173072936388/ Secured about $1M in venture capital seed funding As of September 2017: 8 full time and 2 part time employees Customers and partners in USA and several other countries.