Luna Lu, Purdue University and Vishal Saravade, Purdue University

Every day, Americans travel on roads, bridges and highways without considering the safety or reliability of these structures. Yet much of the transportation infrastructure in the U.S. is outdated, deteriorating and badly in need of repair.

Of the 614,387 bridges in the U.S., for example, 39% are older than their designed lifetimes, while nearly 10% are structurally deficient, meaning they could begin to break down faster or, worse, be vulnerable to catastrophic failure.

The cost to repair and improve nationwide transportation infrastructure ranges from nearly US$190 billion to almost $1 trillion. Repairing U.S. infrastructure costs individual households, on average, about $3,400 every year. Traffic congestion alone is estimated to cost the average driver $1,400 in fuel and time spent commuting, a nationwide tally of more than $160 billion per year.

I am a professor in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering and the director of the Center for Intelligent Infrastructures at Purdue University. My co-author, Vishal Saravade, is part of my team at the Sustainable Materials and Renewable Technology (SMART) Lab. The SMART Lab researches and develops new technologies to make American infrastructure “intelligent,” safer and more cost-effective. These new systems self-monitor the condition of roads and bridges quickly and accurately and can, sometimes, even repair themselves.

Smart, self-healing concrete

Infrastructure – bridges, highways, pavement – deteriorates over time with continuous use. The life of structures could be extended, however, if damages were monitored in real time and fixed early on. In the northern U.S., for example, freeze-thaw cycles in winter cause water to seep into the pavement where it freezes, expands and enlarges cracks, which can cause significant damage. If left unrepaired, this damage may propagate and break down pavements and bridges.

Such damage can be identified and repaired autonomously. At an early stage of a crack, for example, self-healing pavement would activate super absorbent polymers to absorb water and produce concrete-like material that fills in the crack. Cracks as small as a few microns could be healed to prevent significant damage by preventing or delaying the later stages of the freeze-thaw cycle.

Roadway technology

Many researchers in the world are working on improving construction infrastructure. Technologies recently being explored include solar and energy-harvesting roads, charging lanes for electric vehicles, smart streetlights and reducing carbon-related emissions from construction materials.

At the Purdue SMART Lab, our team is also testing novel sensors that monitor transportation infrastructure by embedding them in several Indiana interstate highways. We plan to expand to other state highway systems in the next few years with a goal to better accommodate increased traffic and provide accurate estimates of road conditions during construction and its life.

Sensors embedded in concrete pavement acquire information about the infrastructure’s health condition in real time and communicate the data to computers. Electrical signals are applied through the sensors. Concrete’s vibrations are converted into electrical signals that are read and analyzed by lab-built customized software. This enables transportation engineers to make effective and data-driven decisions from opening roads to traffic and to proactively identifying issues that cause damage or deterioration.

After concrete is poured for highway pavement, for example, it takes hours to cure and become strong enough to open for traffic. The timing of when to open a highway depends on when the concrete mix is cured. If a roadway opens too early and the concrete is undercured, it can reduce the life expectancy of the pavement and increase maintenance costs. Waiting too long to open a road can result in traffic delays, congestion and increased safety risks for construction workers and commuters. Curing concrete for massive highway projects requires close attention by engineers in conjunction with the weather specific to that region.

Smart sensors embedded in concrete enable engineers to monitor the infrastructure and make data-driven decisions about when a road can open while retaining maximum life expectancy. Sensors can also help monitor the quality of concrete and whether it is robust enough to withstand traffic flow and corrosion after a roadway is opened. Smart, efficient infrastructure can significantly reduce structural failures, both catastrophic and through normal wear, as well as lead to reduced costs and provide new ways for structural engineers to assess real-time information about the pavement.

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Saving time and money

Congress recognizes the need to invest in American transportation systems. A $494 billion legislation package, the INVEST In America Act, was recently introduced to address America’s deteriorating highways and bridges while diminishing carbon pollution.

Smart sensors and intelligent infrastructure system can enable significant savings of time and money with improved construction safety. Sensors can provide engineers with real-time data of the quality of our infrastructure to make the best decisions for building and maintaining roads, bridges and pavements while improving safety for drivers and construction workers. The addition of self-repairing properties can help build sustainable and long-lasting infrastructure to reduce maintenance and costs.

Luna Lu, ACPA Scholar & Professor Of Civil Engineering, Purdue University and Vishal Saravade, Post-doctoral Scientist, Purdue University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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a long-deferred dream in aviation — the law will allow them to drive on the states roads, which lawmakers say was not previously legal […]

WHO, WHAT, WHERE & WHY IT’S DISRUPTIVE

What: This new law will allow flying cars to drive on the roads, which was not previously legal in the state.

Who: New Hampshire lawmakers

Where: New Hampshire

Why this is disruptive: This law clears the way for flying cars to drive on the streets without getting sited as an illegal vehicle.

Click here to check out the original story

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Autonomous cars are becoming more and more commonplace despite a misconception that autonomous vehicles will cause huge labor shortages in the U.S. This test program comes as freight haulers and shippers are grappling with a growing shortage of drivers. The American Trucking Association estimates a shortage of 174,500 drivers by 2024.

(Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service started a two-week test transporting mail across three Southwestern states using self-driving trucks, a step forward in the effort to commercialize autonomous vehicle technology for hauling freight. […]

Click here to check out the original story written Heather Somerville for Reuters

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Photo: Rolls-Royce

10. Rolls-Royce Dawn

Posh.  We just like the way that sounds, here at Disruptive Entrepreneur.  Rolls-Royce calls the Dawn model the most sensuous car they have ever built.  And we agree. This is luxury at it’s finest.  It still is unmistakably a Rolls-Royce, but much more modern looking then their other models.  It’s got a 6.6-liter, twin-turbocharged V-12 engine with  563 hp and 575 ft lbs of torque at just 1,500 rpm.  Also, you can drop the top at 30 miles per hour.  That’s right, no stopping to put the top up.  It’s got suicide doors.  What? Yes, the doors hinge at the back and open toward the front.  What’s a luxury car without a great sound system?   The Bespoke Audio system has 16 speakers and a microphone that monitors the noise and automatically changes the system’s volume and tone settings for the best sound quality.  Here’s one of the smartest things about this car — it’s got a satellite-aided 8-speed ZF transmission that uses GPS data to choose the best gear ratio for road conditions.

Just write a check for $339,850 and it’s all yours.  Come pick us up.
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A crowd watched as a roughly 10-foot lengthy sled shot down a short teach track and then crashed right into a pile of sand. It was an inauspicious approach to kick off what’s speculated to be a global revolution in transportation.

Earlier than the demonstration, Hyperloop One’s prime executives made daring proclamations about the way forward for their enterprise, and even quoted Teddy Roosevelt, a part of which notes that if an exceptional man fails,

“at least fails even as daring largely.”

It was once a telling quote, given the high degree of skepticism surrounding the Hyperloop. Most authorities consider that whilst the process can be invented and proven in the U.S., the primary working Hyperloop is normally built overseas.

In a while, I asked the organization’s co-founder Shervin Pishevar if he notion it was rude to notice that the test failed to seem like a lot.

“No, I feel you ought to realize that is a completely new propulsion procedure,” he mentioned, laughing. “we’ll get 350 miles per hour as quickly as we whole that [track]. This was to exhibit everybody we’re actually constructing this. This is actual.”

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A fleet (around twelve) of semi trucks recently crossed Europe utilizing autonomous driving modes – the first time ever on the mainland. It’s all a part of the European Truck Platooning Challenge, an intricate occasion sorted out by the Dutch government that would like to bind together the car business and commercial trucking.

“Platooning,” or the demonstration of autonomous vehicles taking after each other, convoying affects proficiency: it’s less expensive than driving on cruise control, and as indicated by Quartz’s reporting of a TNO study, it can likewise “lessen fuel use by up to 15%, keep human error from causing accidents and reduce congestion.”  Another take away is that it may drive down auto insurance rates.




Around twelve trucks from significant makers like Volvo and Daimler simply finished a week of to a great extent self-sufficient driving crosswise over Europe, the main such real practice on the landmass.

The trucks set off from their bases in three European nations and finished their adventures in Rotterdam in the Netherlands on April 6.  One arrangement of trucks, made by the Volkswagen backup Scania, voyaged more than 2,000 km and crossed four fringes to arrive.

The trucks were participating in the European Truck Platooning Challenge, sorted out by the Dutch government as one of the huge occasions for its 2016 administration of the European Union. While self-driving autos from Google or Ford get the greater part of the credit for catching the general population creative ability, business utilizes for independent or about self-governing vehicles, similar to tractors from John Deere, have been discreetly giving the idea something to do in a business setting.

At the point when trucks self-rulingly tail each other, it’s called “platooning.” They’re associated by wifi and can leave a much littler hole between vehicles than when people are in the driver’s seat. Platooning can decrease fuel use by up to 15%, keep human mistake from bringing on mischances, and lessen clog, as indicated by a study by examination firm TNO. It likewise can decrease costs. Two trucks timing 100,000 miles every year can spare €6,000 on fuel by platooning, contrasted with driving on voyage control, as per TNO.

That is the reason the Dutch set up the involved truck-driving occasion, to pull together everybody with a stake in making them drive trucks out and about. That incorporates transportation authorities, truck creators, officials of organizations with critical logistics needs (counting Unilever and DHL), and scholastics and scientists.

“We now have tremendous vitality in the system and the thought is that we will go to genuine cases. Organizations like Unilever are wanting to begin these cases in 2017,” says Dirk-Jan de Bruijn, the platooning test’s system chief.

In the event that all goes to arrange, self-driving trucks will get merchandise from the port of Rotterdam and convey them crosswise over Europe in a trial by Unilever and different organizations.

Be that as it may, the guards should first effectively explore Europe’s organizations. Bruijn’s next objective is to get everybody to approve a guide for the following five years. This would address the specialized issues, for example, the failure for trucks from various brands to detachment together (they all utilization distinctive wifi frameworks); and additionally administrative issues, such as requiring platooning trucks to meet diverse guidelines in every European nation.

“The test is obviously not an end point, but rather a beginning stage. It’s another commencement,” Bruijn said.

If all goes to plan, self-driving trucks will pick up goods from the port of Rotterdam and deliver them across Europe in a trial by Unilever and other companies.
Curated from A fleet of trucks just drove themselves across Europe — Quartz

“As the test shows, the technology has come a long way already,” said Dutch Infrastructure and Environment Minister Schultz van Hagen. “What it also makes clear is that we Europeans need to better harmonise rules of the road and rules for drivers. This will open the door for upscaled, cross-border truck platooning.”
Curated from Driverless truck convoy platoons across Europe – CNET

The trucks are linked via Wi-Fi, which allows them to brake faster than a human driver could. The responsiveness of each truck within the platoon is estimated at 25 times faster than the average human reaction time of one second – saving critical time in case of emergency braking.
Curated from A fleet of self-driving trucks rumbles across Europe | Computerworld

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