The National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO) is Australia’s leading independent transport research body, working with road and transport agencies and local governments across Australia and New Zealand to improve the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of transport networks. NTRO operates a fleet of advanced survey vehicles, including the Intelligent Pavement Assessment Vehicle (iPAVE), a prime mover with a trailer that uses heavy loading and precision sensors to measure pavement strength, along with other systems that collect detailed information on road assets and overall network performance. Each survey generates gigabytes of data per lane kilometre, creating both an opportunity for unprecedented insight and a challenge in moving and processing this information quickly and reliably.

To support this work, NTRO has integrated Globus, delivered by AARNet, into its data workflow. With each vehicle capturing and transmitting huge amounts of sensor data, Globus ensures that information can be securely and reliably transferred from the road to NTRO’s cloud systems. This innovation also enables real-time validation of captured and processed data, ensuring quality results as soon as they are uploaded. The shift means results that once took weeks or months to prepare are now available to clients within days.

Seamless transfers from road to cloud

At the heart of NTRO’s new workflow is Globus, installed directly on each vehicle’s data capture system to manage the transfer of survey outputs. Tyson Foster, Data and Technology National Leader at NTRO and part of the team responsible for implementing Globus, explained that integration into their existing workflow was very straightforward and required minimal overhead.

NTRO’s iPAVE and other vehicles are equipped with technologies such as LiDAR, which captures 3D maps of road environments, the Traffic Speed Deflectometer, which measures pavement response at highway speeds, and the Laser Crack Measurement System (LCMS-2), which automatically detects and quantifies cracking, rutting, potholes, and other road surface conditions, Ground Penetrating Radar to assess subsurface pavement layers, along with other specialised pavement detection systems.

Using mobile networks like 4G and 5G, or satellite services such as Starlink, the raw and processed data is uploaded directly from the vehicle while it is still in the field. Globus makes this possible with secure, fault-tolerant transfers and automated retries, ensuring that even under variable conditions the data reaches its destination without manual intervention. Once in the cloud, NTRO’s pipelines transform and ingest the data, preparing it for visualisation and analysis, so it can be used by agencies across Australia and New Zealand.

“Globus has proven to be a reliable, secure, and easy-to-use platform for handling our large data uploads,” said Tyson. “The automated retry functionality has been especially helpful, giving us confidence that transfers will complete successfully even when network connections are patchy.”

Safer roads, faster decisions

This new approach means transport agencies no longer have to rely on weeks of manual data transfer or analysis. Instead, survey results are available within hours, enabling evidence-based decision-making on maintenance and repairs. Agencies can integrate the data into their own systems, or NTRO can provide recommendations on optimal strategies. The result is more efficient asset management, reduced costs, and ultimately, safer roads for communities.

“In the past, we were copying data to portable hard drives and physically shipping them,” said Tyson. “With Globus, we’ve moved to a fast, secure, and automated process that allows us to focus on delivering insights, not handling files.”

With Globus, NTRO has not only transformed its data workflows but also scaled its operations internationally. The relationship has been highly collaborative, with AARNet taking the time to understand NTRO’s needs and providing reliable support as the organisation expands its survey fleet into New Zealand and India, ensuring the same reliability and performance across borders.

Photo: NTRO's Intelligent Pavement Assessment Vehicle (iPAVE) prime mover. Credit: National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO).