Pavo

Pavo takes care of defect inventorization and accurate map production, allowing surveyors to continue their paper-based practices. End of a survey, at the push of a button, a digital survey report can be created and emailed to anyone. Thanks to this instant digitization and reportage, a week-long manual data digitization process that usually follows a night of paper-based surveying, is not needed anymore. With Pavo the actual time spent on the road is cut down by about 25% when using Pavo. Pavo is recommended to be used on tablets. Smartphone deployment is also possible for the app, albeit the small screen size. Although the App is fine-tuned for the surveying exercises in the UK, it has enough flexibility to serve elsewhere in the world; only English language support is available for now.

Pavo incorporates many predefined defects and features (e.g. side drain, lamp post), designed for a fast map and inventory generation. Maps are also enabled to take freehand sketches and writing as inputs, making the recording options with the app endless. Each defect record can be customized by adding detailed lateral position within the lane and a severity rating. The app also allows building very adaptable lane configuration on the screen giving greater flexibility to survey nearby lanes without the need for road closure. The use of tablet’s camera and labelling feature eliminates the need to carry a separate digital camera and the possibility of confusion and mistakes that often happens in paper-based surveys. The cloud-based data storage of the app also enables experienced colleagues to shadow a survey from a remote location. The possibility to instantly produce digital data is a key time and money saving feature of the app, given that about 80% of overall paper based survey time is spent in office, digitizing data. The app shifts the focus of a survey back to roads. The app is developed by Strada Imaging Limited, in close collaboration with Aston University and Jacobs UK limited.

An elaborate user interface takes care of project settings and allows extensive customization for different types of lane configurations, such as road types and traffic directions, and other survey settings. In addition, different lane types such as footways and cycle paths can be used to construct an accurate representation of the reality. Pavo generally needs an internet connection , for brief periods it can go without one – the real limitation here is on the number of photos that can be captured and saved while being offline.

Since November 2019, the app underwent significant changes thanks to the use in live projects and valuable feedback by the Asset Management Group at Jacobs UK Ltd.

Ryan Johnson, a senior pavement engineer, from Jacobs comments, ‘the Pavo app literally allows us to execute our walk-in visual inspection in the usual way, but now with much more flexibility, as unlike paper-based surveys we could edit and delete defects. Our surveys, mostly performed in the wee hours, are much easier carrying a tablet alone, instead of the usual survey sheet, camera or smartphone, etc. Moreover, pen and paper surveys are always at the mercy of the elements, often leaving survey sheets with illegible records due to smeared ink from rain. The situation is much better with Pavo, where we can simply turn off the tablet’s screen and wipe it dry before continuing. At our suggestion, Strada Imaging built handwriting input and freehand sketching into the app, and we found that this killer feature improved the flexibility of the app further; we now can draw and write literally anything into the app directly. Pavo also has an intuitive user interface to the liking of my team at Jacobs. Automated digitization, report generation, and emailing - all performed instantaneously - massively cut down the time and effort we usually spend on post-processing, when we are back in office. Pavo brings a breath of fresh air to our DVI.’