ROPOT HOLES

‘Drones will spot cracks in roads and fix them in just 60 seconds’

ROBOTS that can fix a pothole in a minute could be the answer to crumbling roads, say experts.

Instead of gangs of workmen, a fleet of self-driving vehicles or drones will travel around cities identifying cracks in roads and fixing them before the holes develop.

The robots will be able to spray asphalt into a crack and repair it.

Prof Mark Miodownik, of University College London, said Leeds city council was working with a team of engineers and designers to pioneer the idea of “self-repairing cities”. He said: “Our idea is that when these small cracks happen, a drone flying around the road network would see them – and another drone would land and repair them.

“You do it at night and we can do it in about a minute. You stop over the crack, you repair the crack and it’s done. You could stop the traffic at 4am, hold it up for a minute.

“For motorways it is a different problem but for roads in bigger cities, I think night-time autonomous vehicles would have almost no impact on traffic.”

Prof Miodownik, speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, added: “What is immediately possible now for ‘self-repairing cities’ is an exciting prospect in all of our lives.”

The AA said last month that the cost of pothole damage to cars was almost £1million a month. With an average repair bill of around £1,000, the total so far this year comes to £4.2million. And spending on roads maintenance is “way short” of the amount needed, leaving a shortfall of millions a year, said a study by the Asphalt Industry Alliance.

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