IoT-Based Smart Pothole Detection And Alert System

Abstract: Poor road conditions, especially potholes and damaged road surfaces, are a major cause of traffic accidents, vehicle damage, increased travel time, and higher maintenance costs. In many regions, road inspections are still carried out manually, making the process time-consuming, expensive, and often incapable of identifying road damage in real time. This paper presents an IoT-Based Smart Pothole Detection and Alert System designed to automate pothole detection and provide instant location-based reporting using low-cost embedded hardware. The proposed system is built around an ESP32 microcontroller, which continuously monitors road surface conditions using a VL53L3CX Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor. Whenever a significant increase in the measured distance indicates the presence of a pothole, the ESP32 processes the sensor data, activates a buzzer to indicate successful detection, and acquires the geographical coordinates of the damaged road using a Neo-6M GPS module. The collected information, including the pothole status, latitude, longitude, and detection time, is transmitted through the ESP32's built-in Wi-Fi module to the ThingSpeak cloud platform, where it can be monitored remotely through an online dashboard. This enables road maintenance authorities to identify damaged road locations quickly, monitor road conditions in real time, and prioritize repair work more efficiently. A working prototype of the proposed system was developed and experimentally tested under different road conditions. The results demonstrated reliable pothole detection, accurate GPS location tracking, and near real-time cloud data transmission with low processing latency. Overall, the proposed system demonstrates that a simple, portable, and cost-effective combination of embedded sensors, GPS technology, wireless communication, and cloud computing can significantly improve road monitoring, enhance transportation safety, reduce vehicle damage, and contribute to the development of intelligent transportation systems and smart city infrastructure.

Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT), ESP32, Smart Pothole Detection, Vibration Sensor, GPS Tracking, Thing Speak, Road Condition Monitoring, Smart Transportation, Cloud Computing, Intelligent Road Infrastructure.