UK start-up develops world’s first autonomous vehicle to repair potholes

Almost two million potholes are repaired manually on UK roads annually, but this is expected to worsen with ageing infrastructure and increasing numbers of road users.

Now, start-up company Robotiz3d has developed a world-first Robot-as-a-Service technology designed to automate and transform road maintenance, making it faster, safer and more cost-effective.

Located at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory, Robotiz3d has combined AI with advanced robotics to develop an autonomous vehicle that will locate and repair cracks and potholes in the road.

In a statement, Lisa Layzell, CEO and co-founder at Robotiz3d, said: “This is the first autonomous technology of this kind developed specifically to tackle the pothole crisis which plagues many parts of the country, and which is estimated to have cost more than £1bn to repair over the last decade.”

Using advanced detection and repair technologies incorporated into the AI robotics system, the autonomous vehicle can assess and predict the severity of defects, sealing them before they worsen.