A trial looking at how drones could be used to find and assess damage to Kent's roads is now in its second phase.
The Kent Live Labs project will see three separate flights taken across the A20 near Lenham over the next few months.
Images from the identical flights will then be analysed to better understand the change in condition of the landscape, road, power and water networks.
The first phase, carried out at the Kent Showground car park in Detling last year, looked at spotting potholes, asphalt conditions, trees and street lighting over three flights across seven months.
This allowed engineers to spot deterioration over time and flagged faults including surface cracking, which was able to be measured remotely.
The trial is part of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (Adept) Smart Places Live Labs programme, a two year £22.9M project funded by the Department for Transport and supported by project partners Atkins, EY, Kier, 02, Ringway and WSP.
Kent Live Labs project manager Carol Valentine said: “The drones use high resolution imaging sensors and collect data to be processed into digital replicas – this means we can overlay images of the surveyed network and analyse the differences in the images.
“By flying regularly, critical changes can be identified helping us to schedule smarter remedial works on our network.
“The trial is also examining how the technology can be used for capturing wildlife habitats, understanding any future repair works for utility company infrastructure while still using it for highway inspections. Potentially, this will further prove the case for it to be used more widely in the future.”
Kent County Council (KCC) cabinet member for highways and transport David Brazier emphasised that technology is adapting all the time and the trial will enable the council to be at the forefront of new developments.
“Subject to the ongoing success of the trial, this project will allow us to monitor and maintain Kent’s vast road network remotely, negating the need for road closures to assess the condition of our roads, meaning we can keep our residents moving safely and more reliably," he said.
“The county has a range of landscapes, from rural roads to busier main routes, all of which are crucial to Kent’s diverse economy. Understanding how this technology works and what it can do for us is essential to smarter management of our roads.”
KCC is working with AmeyVTOL, Collins Aerospace and aerial film specialists Aviat Drones.
According to Amey Consulting technical director of innovation and technology Simon Grundy, the technology will facilitate planning "for future highway repair works" and also enable teams to "understand the conditions of the local soft landscape assets and habitats that line the edges of the critical road network".
He added: “The ability to monitor vegetation growth and condition ensures activities can be undertaken to reduce disruption that may be caused to the local community by impacts on highways infrastructure and critical utility services from overgrown or unhealthy vegetation.
“The use of regular repeatable flights allows us to monitor change, analysing the progressive changes against historical data to support predicting trends.
“This in turn supports proactive and smart scheduling of remedial activities to prevent impacts on the infrastructure assets, helping ensure that defects or potential issues are captured and dealt with ahead of the point in which they become disruptive.”
Adept Live Labs programme director Giles Perkins added that "focusing on real problems and challenges helps us use future mobility technologies to their fullest".
He said: “The need to remove workers from dangerous places right across our highway networks is a common issue and we hope that this trial moves us closer to their use becoming business as usual.”