Autonomous Maintenance of Highway Pavements: A Framework Aiming toward Implementation

Autonomous highway pavement maintenance promises enhanced safety, cost savings and environmental benefits, but its practical deployment is unrealized. Drawing on public, academic, and industrial data sets, and supported by the research literature, we propose a framework for a fully autonomous maintenance vehicle (AMV). The framework includes: (1) critical tasks of self–driving and the autonomous inspection and repair of cracks and small potholes; (2) system architecture spanning sensing, perception and localization, planning, control, actuation, and communication for executing these tasks; and (3) end-to-end operational workflow linking the tasks. Future challenges and opportunities are discussed, including multimodal perception, precision material deposition, whole-life costings, updated standards, and workforce considerations. The intention of the framework is to help accelerate autonomous highway pavement maintenance toward safer, more resilient, and cost-effective highways.