Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for calculating highway and airport pavement deflections. A pavement monitoring system includes a tractor and a semi-trailer, where a rigid horizontal beam is suspended under the semi-trailer. Various sensing elements are attached to the rigid beam, such as laser scanning sensors configured to measure a distance from the laser scanning sensors to the same point on the pavement at two different times, a gyrometer configured to estimate a raw pitch rate, an inertial measurement unit configured to estimate an orientation of the beam and accelerometers configured to measure an acceleration at a same level as corresponding laser scanning sensors. By utilizing these sensing elements, a more accurate pavement deflection is estimated by not relying on indirect measurements. Furthermore, the tractor and semi-trailer of the pavement monitoring system may travel at the velocity of traffic.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for calculating highway and airport pavement deflections. A pavement monitoring system includes a tractor and a semi-trailer, where a rigid horizontal beam is suspended under the semi-trailer. Various sensing elements are attached to the rigid beam, such as laser scanning sensors configured to measure a distance from the laser scanning sensors to the same point on the pavement at two different times, a gyrometer configured to estimate a raw pitch rate, an inertial measurement unit configured to estimate an orientation of the beam and accelerometers configured to measure an acceleration at a same level as corresponding laser scanning sensors. By utilizing these sensing elements, a more accurate pavement deflection is estimated by not relying on indirect measurements. Furthermore, the tractor and semi-trailer of the pavement monitoring system may travel at the velocity of traffic.