Expert systems in pavement management

This paper discusses the potential application of expert systems, a new information technology derived from artificial intelligence research, to pavement management. The principal focus concerns the development of such knowledge-based or expert systems for project-level analysis and design of pavement rehabilitation strategies. Particular emphasis is placed on the needs of locally managed highway systems, although many of the concepts are also more broadly applicable. The paper provides a brief overview of the evolution and application of expert systems. Several major issues in pavement management are discussed which strongly suggest the appropriateness of expert systems approaches. These issues include the role of computerized pavement management systems, the acquisition of pavement performance data and current procedures for pavement structural evaluation and design. Current research on PARADIGM, an integrated set of expert systems for pavement rehabilitation decision-making, is described. Finally, a PARADIGM component system consisting of an operational prototype expert system for pavement surface condition evaluation, is presented as an example.