“In the future, these systems will be able to collect and deliver data on weather conditions, icy roads, accidents ahead and curves in the road,” Cook said. “Data from one car will be able to inform another as they drive, delivering data at light speed, because you want to know that there is an accident now, not later on down the road.”

Establishing a new form of road and pavement deterioration recording, Nizar Lajnef, assistant professor in the MSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is leading the research at MSU.

“The sensors are self-powered by piezo-electric material,” Lajnef said. “Embedded in the road, the sensors will be powered by mechanical energy produced through deformation of the material as a truck passes by, converting it into electrical energy.”

Able to track road deterioration on a continuous basis before any cracking appears on the surface of the road, the sensors will also prove to be environmentally and economically friendly, said Karim Chatti, professor of MSU’s Civil and Environmental Engineering department. The sensors will wireless relay information through the proper channels, Chatti said.

“They’re using energy that is already there, so there is no external energy needed,” Chatti said. “By monitoring the deterioration history of the pavement, considering the environmental and repeated strain caused by heavier vehicles, we can track the remaining life span of the pavement.”

The research still is in planning stages, although researchers intend to put the sensors in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s IntelliDriveSM, which is a program that helps communication between cars and infrastructure, such as bridges and roads.

The research project also is paired with the University of Michigan, which received a five-year, $9 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to research and expand road monitoring technology in its infancy stages, and Michigan Technological University, which received a two-year, $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation-Research and Innovative Technology Administration to further explore developed technology such as laser and remote-sensing technology for bridge monitoring.

The three universities came together to submit a proposal with MDOT’s support, said Kirk Steudle, Michigan Department of Transportation’s Chief Deputy Director.

“The positive side of this is that by combining their resources and leveraging the strength of each university, this research is being done in Michigan instead of California, Virginia or Minnesota, all of which have very developed research faculty in this area,” Steudle said. “I believe that when our Michigan universities’ resources are combined there isn’t a state that can stand a chance of competing against us.”