Total Available Funding: $200,000
Issue Date: December 08, 2025
Proposal Due Date: January 16, 2026
For questions, please contact:
Michael Lane (mlane1@indot.in.gov)
Yiheng Feng (feng333@purdue.edu)
Road maintenance activities are crucial for ensuring safe and efficient delivery of goods and people. Well-maintained roads not only extend their lifespan but also significantly reduce the risk of accidents and improve fuel efficiency. In recent years, with the development of vehicle automation, wireless communication, and robotic technologies, some road maintenance activities can be partially or fully replaced by machines, which bring significant benefits in improving road maintenance workers’ safety and productivity and alleviating the growing workforce shortage.
This pooled fund study aims at investigating autonomous maintenance technologies (AMT) and how they can be implemented in state DOT’s daily maintenance operations. The project is led by Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and joined by 11 other state DOTs including California (CA), Colorado (CO), Illinois (IL), Kansas (KS), Michigan (MI), Minnesota (MN), Missouri (MO), Mississippi (MS), Pennsylvania (PA), and Texas (TX). Purdue University serves as the lead research institution for the project through the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP). More information on the pooled fund study can be found at:
https://pooledfund.org/Details/Solicitation/1622
The overall objective of this study is to support and promote collaborative research efforts in the field of AMTs for road maintenance activities. The project is interested in exploring various emerging AMTs, including autonomous vegetation control (e.g., autonomous mowing, and drone-based spraying), autonomous pothole patching, autonomous crack sealing, automated traffic control device setup (e.g., cone, barrier, and temporary rumble strip), autonomous snow plow, autonomous roadway inspection (pavement, signage etc.), autonomous sweeping, autonomous culvert inspection, autonomous pavement marking restriping, and autonomous truck mounted attenuator (ATMA). These AMTs can be categorized into three types: fully automated, partially automated, and remotely operated systems. Fully automated AMTs perform all operational tasks without human intervention, relying on onboard sensors, control systems, and robotic arms to detect, plan, and execute maintenance actions autonomously. Examples include autonomous crack sealing machines, and autonomous sweepers. Partially automated AMTs involve shared control and execution between human operators and autonomous functions. The machine executes part of the maintenance actions automatically and/or provides information and guidance to humans. Examples include autonomous pothole patching systems and snow plow driver assist systems. Finally, remotely operated AMTs rely on human control through teleoperation in a remote location. This approach is particularly useful in hazardous or inaccessible environments where direct human presence is impractical. Examples include culvert inspection and mowing (e.g., on steep slopes).
Specifically, the following AMTs and their corresponding research areas are of high interest to the group.
Vegetation Control – Drone-based herbicide
1. System requirements for drone-based herbicide: This includes 1) technologies to automatically identify the weed species and mapping of their spatial distribution; 2) procedures for establishing designated spraying zones and corresponding spray-plan recommendations; and 3) technologies enabling the autonomous and targeted spraying from drones.
2. Implementation guideline: Develop a comprehensive implementation guideline that consolidates and standardizes state DOTs’ practices for the use of drones in vegetation management and herbicide application. Topics include, but are not limited to, synthesizing current practice, compliance of federal airspace regulations (e.g., FAA Part 108, Part 137) and state airspace regulations, approved chemical-use policies, determination of permissible application areas (e.g., minimum allowable distance from active roadways/fields/properties to mitigate exposure risks), safety and risk management, operational planning, technology (vendor) selection, training and certification, and cost-benefit analysis.
Vegetation Control – Autonomous Mowing
1. Synthesis Study: Conduct a comprehensive synthesis of current autonomous mowing technologies and deployment practices across industry and transportation agencies. Topics include but are not limited to mower types and functionalities, assessment of operational performance limits (or operational design domains) including maximum allowable mowing slope, federal and state regulations on autonomous equipment operating on the right of way, current implementation barriers, and cost-benefit analysis.
2. Mowing Technology Enhancement: Advance the technical capabilities of autonomous mowing systems in roadside vegetation management. Priority areas include 1) high-accuracy obstacle detection and classification (e.g., debris, sign stubs, obstacles in tall grass) and adaptive path planning to handle edge cases where visibility is limited or vegetation density is high; and 2) automated or semi-automated mapping of the mowing area and mission preplanning to reduce reliance on labor-intensive pre-mapping and mowing routing.
Pothole Patching and Crack Sealing
1. Synthesis Study: Conduct a comprehensive synthesis of current autonomous pothole patching and crack sealing technologies and deployment practices across industry and transportation agencies, such as existing technologies and products, state DOT experiences and lessons learned, state-of-practice including pros and cons of each technology, and barriers and challenges in implementation.
2. Need Assessment: Conduct a comprehensive assessment to identify gaps between the capabilities of existing autonomous pothole patching and crack sealing technologies and the operational, safety, and performance requirements of state DOTs. This includes 1) evaluating whether current systems align with agency job specifications, and examining customization to satisfy differing state-level standards and regulatory constraints; and 2) developing a quality assurance (QA) process to evaluate the quality of the job done by the machines (e.g., detection and identification of the potholes/cracks, and the sealing/patching process including air blowing, material usage, patching/sealing accuracy, compaction, and durability).
The research topics discussed above are not meant to be an exhaustive list. Instead, this pooled fund study is actively seeking proposals that present innovative concepts capable of expediting the development and implementation of AMTs, with the aim of enhancing worker and work zone safety, and promoting road maintenance productivity and quality. Furthermore, this pooled fund study highly encourages proposals that build upon existing commercially available products.
Create a single PDF file with the cover page and the required proposal elements and submit electronically to: Teresa DeMien (tdemien@purdue.edu).
Important Dates
Proposal Due: January 16, 2026
Target project start date: June 1, 2026
Required Proposal Elements:
The proposal description should include the following contents
4. Appendix A: Itemized Budget and budget justification.
a. Itemized budget:
i. Faculty and staff salaries with fringe benefits
ii. Graduate Student Research Assistant (GSRA) and/or postdoc salaries with fringe benefits
iii. GSRA Tuition
iv. Supplies/Materials
v. Travel
vi. Equipment
vii. Other
viii. Total Direct Cost Amount
ix. Indirect Cost Amount
x. Total project cost
b. Budget Justification. Describe level of effort to perform the tasks in the project description. 5. Appendix B: Resumes. Short bios of the PIs: no more than one page for each primary researcher.
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