Automated eco-friendly road stripe removal system

Roads, airports, and parking areas worldwide depend on surface stripes as visual aids for the traffic. While much effort has gone into improving paints, their removal is still difficult and unsafe. This paper discusses the design, fabrication, and testing of a first semi-automated stripe removal prototype utilizing dry ice (CO2). Similar to high-pressure water jets, dry ice removes the paint without damage to the road surface. The position control of blast nozzle and containment box was automated in order to relieve the operator from having to follow the stripes accurately. The results from testing the first prototype substantiated the technical efficacy of the concept and showed what improvements are necessary to make it road-worthy and a viable technology. The project exemplifies a low cost collaboration between industry, governmental agency, and a university in South Korea. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.