Road Surface Condition and Monitoring System Utilizing Motorcycle (ROCOM)—System Development, Validation and Field Test

: Motorcycles are the riskiest mode of travel in Malaysia, however motorcycles are also very sensitive to the road surface condition. Thus, by taking advantage of this, a system of software applications that analyses motorcycle motion and mapped out risky road sections was developed, i.e. ROCOM. The system consists of three major components, i.e. ROCOM Data Logger app, which utilizes a smart phone to collect acceleration data, ROCOM Risk Mapping app, which is a web-based application, and ROCOM Visual Tracking, which is a stand along software. ROCOM is able to detect adverse acceleration (> 2g) or vibration on the road surface similar to the High Accuracy GPS Data Logging for Vehicle Testing (VBOX). Risk mapping validation along a section of the motorcycle lane along Federal Route 2 shows that not only ROCOM have the similar risk-mapping pattern, but its route tracking capability on the map is far superior that the VBOX. The pilot and field test results showed that ROCOM works best when mounting the smartphone on the motorcycle handle bar or basket, and it can detect various road anomalies with successful detection rate of 62%, with high detection rate when passing through uneven road surfaces.