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- [Narrator] Winters are
often brutal in north Texas.

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With a fleet of 700 snow plows
Tex DOT wants to make sure

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that motorists can travel
as safely as possible

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during these dangerous conditions.

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To improve this process

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researchers are turning to technology to

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develop a snow plow management system.

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With onboard cameras, the system
would allow the collection

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of live images, of actual
roadway and weather conditions,

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that can be monitored
from a central location.

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- These 700 snow plows and
their operators working

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in extremely cold and
dangerous conditions.

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They don't have continuous
communications with

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the operation managers in the office.

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We installed sensors,
cameras, basically tablets

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on the snowplows.

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And we also created the GIA
space, snowplow operations

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management system that
works with these sensors,

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gets data from them.

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So the operator in the office,

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operation managers in the office,

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has access to real time conditions

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of where the snow plows
are working and operating.

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- At its most basic level it
works just like a cell phone.

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It's an eight inch tablet
that you turn it on,

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you swipe it up once, you
select the only app on there.

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And it activates.

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There's one button you have to say run.

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And then what the program
does is, every 10 minutes,

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when you're moving five
miles an hour or faster,

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it will take a picture
and upload that picture

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along with temperature data,
GPS location information,

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and it will all go up to a website

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and it overlays on top of a RGIS map.

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- This GIS system gets all
the information, process them,

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and basically present
them on very easy to use

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map based interfaces that
operators can easily see

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all the snow plows operating
and click on each of them,

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and see the information
about a specific snow plow.

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- If we got a heavy
snowfall, say six inches

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of snow in our Western counties,
which is typical for us,

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and then we didn't get as much
snow in the Eastern counties.

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We can visually see,

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without making any contact with a driver,

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without making any contact
with a maintenance section,

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I can see that that road is not clear,

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that that road's in bad shape

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and I need to reallocate
some resources to address it.

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- We successfully
implemented the project in

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Tex DOT Forth Worth district.

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And also in two winter
seasons we tested that

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and the system also the
GI system is also working,

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map-based system.

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So in two winter seasons,
the operators use the system

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successfully and the
Tex DOT can extend that

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to other districts that
they need that easily.

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- [Narrator] For more information,

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and to find the publications
for this project,

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please visit the Tex DOT research library

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at the link shown below.