Evaluation of mobile mapping systems for roadway data collection

Mobile mapping systems (MMSs) are based on advanced technologies for automatically collecting roadway inventory data. A host of advanced technologies, such as the Global Positioning System for collecting georeferencing data and digital cameras for collecting roadway data, are used in current MMSs. An MMS is driven on a subject roadway, collecting positional data and digital images of the roadway. Through photogrammetric software packages, roadway data are extracted from images. Although there have been studies evaluating the accuracy of positional data collected by MMSs, there have been limited studies of the descriptive data accuracy they provide. In this paper the results of an evaluation of the accuracy of descriptive inventory data collected by three different MMSs are discussed. Each system was tested in three different roadway environments, and five different types of inventory elements were included in each test. The accuracy of collected data was compared with ground truth data. Analysis of these data indicated that the roadway environment and the of inventory element affect the accuracy of descriptive inventory data collected by MMSs.