Drones could use 3D printers to fix potholes
BRITAIN’S crumbling roads could be fixed by drones which fill in a pothole in a minute, scientists have predicted.
An army of robots could patrol towns and cities identifying cracks in roads and pavements before a pothole develops. A drone with an attached 3D printer would be able to spray asphalt into the hole to repair it.
They would carry out their work at night to ensure roads are not shut during the day. Leeds City Council is already working with engineers and designers to pioneer the concept of ‘self-repairing cities’.
Professor Mark Miodownik, of University College London, said: ‘Our idea is that when these small cracks happen we want to be able to see them. 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.’
He told Cheltenham Science Festival: ‘You could stop the traffic at 4am, hold it up for a minute. For motorways it is a different problem but for roads in Cheltenham and bigger cities, I think night-time autonomous vehicles would have almost no impact on traffic.’
Professor Miodownik stressed that Britain’s road network is falling apart due to the backlog of repairs. Local councils and Highways England – which oversees motorways and A-roads – have been criticised for leaving potholes for weeks or even months before filling them in.
Local authorities have said they are £556million short of the money they need to maintain the roads properly this year.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance estimates that it would take town halls across England and Wales a total of 14 years and £9.3billion to clear the backlog.
Highways England previously predicted cars of the future could be programmed to spot potholes on motorways and transmit the information to help it schedule repairs.
It is also funding a team at Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre which is testing capsules of oil embedded into the road surface which split open, soften asphalt and stick it together again if cracks appear.