StradaScope: Monitoring System For Road Condition
Urban road networks are critical infrastructure, yet maintaining them efficiently remains a challenge. Traditional inspection methods - manual surveys or specialized sensor vehicles - are expensive, infrequent, and often reactive. As a result, potholes, cracks, and other hazards can go unnoticed until they cause real damage.
StradaScope takes a different approach. By harnessing the sensors already present in drivers’ smartphones - GPS for positioning, accelerometers for vibration detection, and, where available, other built-in sensors - it continuously maps road surface quality in real time. The system collects data from everyday trips made by taxi drivers, delivery fleets, public transport operators, and service vehicles. Participation is simple: drivers run the StradaScope app during their normal routes, and the data is sent anonymously to a secure backend for processing. Drivers are compensated per kilometre of validated data, creating an incentive without adding extra work.
Once collected, the raw readings undergo a multi-stage analysis pipeline. Machine learning algorithms detect anomalies such as potholes or surface cracks, cross-validating reports from multiple vehicles to improve accuracy. Satellite and aerial Earth observation data are integrated into the process to remove false positives from predictable features like pedestrian crossings, railway tracks, or speed bumps, and to confirm significant issues. The refined output is stored as vector map tiles and other geospatial formats optimised for analytics.
For city authorities, road maintenance contractors, and infrastructure managers, the results are presented through the StradaScope web dashboard. This interface delivers a live map of road conditions, complete with severity scoring, historical change tracking, and filtering tools to prioritise repairs. The subscription-based platform allows decision-makers to plan maintenance dynamically, allocate budgets more effectively, and monitor the outcomes of repair work over time.
By replacing costly, periodic surveys with a continuous, crowdsourced monitoring network, StradaScope makes road upkeep more proactive and data-driven. It reduces the time between defect formation and repair, helping extend road lifespans, lower vehicle damage claims, and improve safety for all road users. With each additional driver and each kilometre of road scanned, the platform becomes more complete - building towards a living, constantly updated digital twin of a city’s streets.
