Chronological development history of X–Y table based pavement crack sealers and research findings for practical use in the field

During the last two decades, several teleoperated and machine-vision assisted systems have been developed to automate the overall process of routing and sealing pavement cracks. Productivity improvement, improved safety and quality, and reduced road user costs have motivated these developments. This paper presents the chronological development history of x–y table based pavement crack sealers, which have been developed and demonstrated since the early 1990s, and compares their technical advances. This paper also discusses primary research findings in machine vision software and hardware designs of an automated pavement crack sealer to be newly developed for practical use in the field. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are made concerning the value of implementing and practically using the automated pavement crack sealer.