A Productivity Model for Performance Evaluation of the UT Automated Road Maintenance Machine

An Automated Road Maintenance Machine (ARAMM) for automatically sealing pavement cracks has been developed by the University of Texas at Austin. Automating pavement crack sealing can improve safety, productivity and quality and reduce road user costs as well. Recent initial field trials of the full scale crack sealer have indicated that automated pavement crack sealing is now technically, economically, and financially feasible. This paper describes the methodology for determining the productivity of the ARMM to evaluate its performance. The main objective of the productivity study is to examine if the ARMM can meet the productivity of a standard crack sealing crew. To predict the productivity of the ARMM under different field conditions, a mathematical model is developed and presented in this paper. Data for the productivity analysis will be collected from a series of field trials being conducted at the UT research campus and to be completed at five districts in the state of Texas.