Decatur council approves one‑year trial of Biolytics AI road-and-asset system

Slater Rush of Biolytics demonstrated an AI-driven asset-management platform that uses mounted smartphones to collect geolocated images and generate automated pavement and asset-condition ratings. "It's as easy as mounting an iPhone and driving," Rush told the council, describing continuous image capture, automated distress detection and exportable reports useful for budgeting and grant applications.

The vendor said the system can run from everyday fleet vehicles such as street sweepers or garbage trucks, upload images over Wi‑Fi to a secure web service, and produce work orders, material-quantity estimates and time logs. The presenter said the city would own its data; images are stored in a pool of pixelated images, and the system can export reports for use in grant applications and in-house planning.

Council members asked about staff impacts and costs. Council member Matt Dyer said, "This is not going to get rid of another employee; it's going to allow us to use another employee somewhere else and get more things done." The vendor quoted an annual fee of $14,560 that includes on-site setup, training and equipment; the company said it can provide vehicle mounts and a mobile app for work-order printing.

After questions and discussion about data ownership, frequency of collection and how the system could support Community Crossings grant applications, a council member moved to authorize a one‑year pilot at the quoted price. The motion was seconded and approved by voice vote with all present members in favor and one member absent.

Next steps: staff will coordinate final contract terms, equipment delivery and training if the city follows through on the pilot. The council also noted that any long-term contract would return to the board of works or council as required for formal approval.