Detection of road surface damages such as cracks, defects is very important and helps to identify the necessary maintenance to prevent accidents, evaluate road maintenance budgets and predicting the remaining service life of road.
In consideration of the problems stated above, a methodology to detect cracks in the surface of paved road is proposed using digital images and 3D data captured by scanner.
In this research an automated method has been developed using MATLAB software to detect road surface damages depending on digital image camera. The classified and characterized cracks types are vertical, alligator or block, miscellaneous and transverse crack. The length and width of each type of crack can be determined, but the areas of damages are measured for alligator cracks.
The 3D laser scanner as a modern survey equipment is utilized in this paper to assess and estimate the quantities required for maintaining some types of roads surface defects.
The developed software and using 3D laser scanner show good efficiency to detect and classify the roads surface damages.