The objective of this specification is to define the required attributes of an inertial profiler, which, when combined with an operator, becomes a complete inertial profiling system (IPS). The system may be used to measure a longitudinal pavement profile for construction quality control and acceptance or for network data collection. The equipment may be added to a host vehicle as a single-function device or a component of a multifunctional data collection device. The equipment shall be able to calculate summary roughness indices, particularly the International Roughness Index (IRI). This specification is designed to apply to both low-speed and high-speed profilers.

The equipment shall be capable of outputting the pavement elevation profile as a temporary display, a printed record, and a data file.

It is not the intent of this specification to relieve the supplier from the final responsibility to provide an appropriate product for the intended function, nor is it intended to specify all the design details. The objective is to provide a sufficiently detailed specification that the function is clearly defined. It is intended to be sufficiently detailed that the data collected from multiple profilers will be identical.

This standard was formerly designated as provisional standard MP 11.