The Computer Integrated Road Construction project

This paper is about the "Computer Integrated Road Construction" (CIRC) project, which is a Brite-EuRam III funded project, lasting 1997-1999, aiming at introducing a new generation of control and monitoring tools for road pavements construction. These new tools are designed to bring on the sites significant improvements by creating a digital link between design office and job site, The first part of the paper describes the background of the project, which gathers seven European partners from five different countries, and gives the objectives of the project, in general and for each of the two targeted products: one for the compactors (CIRCOM) and one for the asphalt pavers (CIRPAV). Then, the two prototypes are described, each of them being broken down into three main sub-systems: the ground sub-system (GSS), the on-board sub-system (OB) and the positioning sub-system (POS). The expected benefits for the different users are also presented and quantified. The central part of the paper is devoted to the main technical innovations that have been developed in the frame of the project: universal vector database for road equipment guidance, multi-machine functionalities of CIRCOM and the two positioning systems which are actually the technological keys of the systems. Finally, the state of progress of the developments of the two CIRC products and the first commercial success achieved in parallel are presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.