Ceit and San Sebastian City Council collaborate to digitize road maintenance with the BideRoad project

The "BideRoad" pilot project will improve the maintenance management of four of the city's road networks by digitizing them and improving their traceability.

The proposal, submitted by the Ceit technology center to the Ideas Competition for the Resolution of Urban Challenges of Fomento de San Sebastián, has the involvement of the department of Maintenance and Urban Services of the City Council.

The technological solution "BideRoad: Automation of the inspection and digitalization of the maintenance of urban road networks" presented by Ceit to the Ideas Competition for the Resolution of Urban Challenges of Fomento de San Sebastián will be tested in the city during the coming months.

The project stands out for its innovative impact on a public service and will improve the management of road network maintenance.

Fomento de San Sebastián includes the promotion of public innovation as one of the priorities of its Strategic Plan. Initiatives such as the contest bring local knowledge and talent to the municipal level and provide innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the city.

In the presentation the agreement, Ane Oyarbide, Councilor for Economics and Local employment , stressed that "this is just one example of how we can turn technological innovation into a tool for urban transformation with social impact. This contest sample the commitment of the Municipal Society for the public-private partnership and, in addition, reinforces the connecting role of Fomento de San Sebastián to promote innovation in the public sphere and to be a reference letter agent in the development of strategic projects in San Sebastián".

For the Councilor for Maintenance and Urban Services, Carlos Garcia, "the development the pilot project will contribute to a more efficient management of public services, promoting a modernization of municipal processes, since the digitization of information and its update is the basis for a more efficient and traceable management ".

For his part, Ceit s CEO Juan Melendez, says "From Ceit we are very grateful for the opportunity that the City Council and Fomento de San Sebastian give us through this partnership agreement. Thanks to this agreement, Ceit's spin-off, BideRoad, will be able to validate the technology in a real environment, contributing at the same time to improve the service provided by the different Departments of the City Council to the citizens. This partnership is a clear example of how the research we develop can be translated into real solutions that improve people's lives and how Fomento de San Sebastián promotes innovation and entrepreneurship in the city."

project "Bideroad".

San Sebastián has road networks that need to be renewed from time to time as the weather and its own use degrade the road surface. The maintenance department carries out periodic visual inspections to proceed to their repair, consuming a significant amount of resources and time. The "BideRoad" pilot project will improve maintenance management by digitizing and automating the inspection of these networks. Specifically, bus lines 13, 17, 28 and 31 have been selected to test the tool.

First, a sensorized vehicle with a vision capture system will complete the routes of the lines to process the images with artificial intelligence. In this way, the roads will be digitized and the condition of the road surface will be automatically identified, recorded and their maintenance managed. The platform also includes a web interface for visualizing the road networks, their condition, maintenance resources and the planning of maintenance tasks.

The pilot project , which will last 12 months, is the final stage of Ceit s research and development cycle and will be a fundamental support for the recently established new technology-based business for the management of the system. In total, more than 300 people work in the 20 spin-offs set up to date by Ceit, most of them having received the support of Fomento de San Sebastián in their creation and development.