This study examined the characteristics of research activities in the road sector via an analysis of patents and papers. For the text mining analysis, this study used keywords that contained the term “highway” and extracted data; 25,306 patents and 11,940 papers were used for the analysis. Along with a paper analysis, there is a 3P (paper, patent and patent) analysis method used to examine papers and patents. The 3P analysis method analyzes patent trends (time series, country, applicant, institution, and so on), original technology patents, the latest technology trends in the field of interest, and research trends by examining and evaluating key patent rights and their technology and utilization values. More specifically, analyzing patents owned by companies and papers published based on data obtained from text mining, allows researchers to compare intellectual property competitiveness by institution and identify a competitor’s research trends. Based on the results, commercialized tech areas and global research activity trends can be identified to establish a technology strategy. In this regard, this study used keywords only related to “highway” and acquired the following analysis results: To begin with, some of the most noteworthy research and development areas in the road and transport sector recently included “traction hybrid battery,” “information navigation date,” and “navigation determination.” This suggests great implications. Thus far, the road and transport section has traditionally researched “Construction of Roads, Railways, or Bridges” in Section E (Fixed Constructions) of the International Patent Classification and supporting works such as the installation of supports for the road or the construction of platforms, snow fences or similar arrangements. This study, however, found that lately, a lot of research is being conducted on systems such as transport control systems, transport safety, transport control radars or similar systems, sonar or Light Detection and ranging system, and anti-collision systems. In addition, as smart toll collection increasingly becomes available, a lot of research in the field of physics is being undertaken on transmission methods for measures, control signals or similar signs, and ticket dispensers or devices to collect tolls and admission fees. In conclusion, based on the above findings, this study was able to identify that more research in the road and transport sector is being conducted on smart toll collection and tech convergence such as physics and systems than traditional civil engineering as today’s world is heading towards the 4th Industrial Revolution.

• Yongwon Kim(Expressway & Transportation Research Institute, Korea Expressway Corporation, Kyeonggi, Korea)
• Shin Park(Expressway & Transportation Research Institute, Korea Expressway Corporation, Kyeonggi, Korea)
• Jiho Park(Expressway & Transportation Research Institute, Korea Expressway Corporation, Kyeonggi, Korea)