Towards a more automated and optimised maintenance, renewal and upgrade of roads by means of robotised technologies and intelligent decision support tools

The objective of OMICRON is to develop an Intelligent Asset Management Platform with a broad portfolio of area-specific innovative technologies to enhance the construction, maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the European road network.

This project will improve the whole asset management pipeline focusing on four pillars: the implementation digital inspection technologies; the development of a road Digital Twin; the construction of a Decision Support Tool; and the development of smart construction and intervention solutions for road infrastructures.

OMICRON’s Intelligent Platform will be interconnected by a BIM-oriented Digital Twin linked to the Decision Support Tool, which will enable the industrialisation and automation of a number of road management tasks which currently still have a high labour component.

OMICRON’s developments will address the entire road network system including pavement, bridges, tunnels, lighting or signalling systems.These improvements will result in a) an increase of the safety levels in road intervention actions, affecting both road users and personnel; b) an increase in the capacity of the road network; c) an overall improvement of the efficiency of road intervention processes; and d) a subsequent reduction of maintenance costs.The group of technologies developed in the project will be implemented in a virtual demo and four real demonstrators that belong to CEF corridors from two European countries: Spain and Italy.

The technologies developed in OMICRON will achieve a TRL 7 after the demonstration phase.

The consortium is formed by 16 partners from 7 EU countries, including road managers and associations; emergency, routine and extraordinary maintenance contractors; civil engineering companies; smart solution developers; drones and robotics experts; research centres; universities; ICT developers and integrators; communication and dissemination managers; business model managers and innovation and project managers.