• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 2012

In this paper, a detection method of a pedestrian safety road marking was proposed. The proposed algorithm uses laser range and reflectivity of a range finder (LRF). For a detection of crosswalk marking and stop line, the DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) of reflectivity and cross-correlation method between the reference replica and the measured reflectivity are used. A speed bump is detected through measuring an altitude difference of two LRFs which have the different tilted angle. Furthermore, we proposed a velocity constrained a detection method of a speed bump. Finally, the proposed methods are tested in on-line, on the pavement of a road. The considered road markings are wholly detected. The localization errors of both road markings are smaller than 0.4 meter.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1268-1279
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• 2005

The current method for pavement sign marking operations is labor-intensive and very dangerous due to the exposure of workers to passing traffic. It also requires blocking traffic for a long period of time resulting serious traffic jam. This paper deals with the development of a robotic system for automating the pavement sign painting operations. The robotic system consists of gantry frame equipped with transverse drive rail and automatic paint spray system. The workspace of the gantry robot is extended to one-lane width with the transverse rail system. This research also includes the development of font data structures that contain the shape information of pavement signs, such as Korean letters, English letters and symbols. The robot path is generated with this font data through the procedures of scaling up/down and partitioning the signs to be painted depending on the workspace size.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.521-525
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• 2011

Lane marking detection is one of important issues in the field of autonomous mobile robot. Especially, in urban environment, like pavement roads of downtown or tour tracks of Science Park, which have continuous patterns on the surface of the road, the lane marking detection becomes more important ability. Although there were many researches about lane detection and lane tracing, many of them used vision sensors mainly to detect lane marking. In this paper, we obtain 2 dimensional library data of 'Intensity' and 'Distance' using one laser rangefinder only. We design a simple classifier and filtering algorithm for the lane detection which uses only one LRF (Laser Range Finder). Allowing extended usage of LRF, this research provides more functionality not only in range finding but also in lane detecting to mobile robots. This work will be technically helpful for robot developers to design more simple and efficient autonomous driving system using LRF.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.9-16
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to establish how drivers react on different pavement markings in a driving simulator for speed reduction. For this, forty one people between the ages of twenty and seventy took part in this experiment. A study analyzed which patterns are effective to reduce a speeding. As a results, 'Peripheral Transverse Lines II' were the most effective treatment for reducing driving speeds in the driving simulator. This study carries an important meaning when presenting the effectiveness of speed reduction for perceptual countermeasure based on the human factors. Further research will be required to determine the long term effectiveness of these countermeasures due to concerns over drivers becoming too accustomed to implemented markings. Also, the color contrasts (for example, dark asphalt with white markings) can be considered.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2016

In this study, different proportions of glass beads used for road marking were added into the concrete samples to reduce the temperature gradient through the concrete pavement thickness. It is well known that decreasing the temperature gradient reduces the risk of thermal cracking and increases the service life of concrete pavement. The extent of alkali-silica reaction (ASR) produced with partial replacement of fine aggregate by glass bead was investigated and compressive strength of concrete samples with different proportion of glass bead in their mix designs were measured in this study. Ideal results were obtained with less than 0.850 mm diameter size glass beads were used (19 % by total weight of aggregate) for C30/37 class concrete. Top and bottom surface temperatures of two different C30/37 strength class concrete slabs with and without glass beads were measured. It was identified that, using glass bead in concrete mix design, reduces the temperature differences between top and bottom surfaces of concrete pavement. The study presented herein provides important results on the necessity of regulating concrete road mix design specifications according to regions and climates to reduce the temperature gradient values which are very important in concrete road design.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.815-825
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• 2017

Visibility of lane marking is impaired at night or in the rain, which thereby threatens traffic safety. Recently, various studies and technologies have been developed to improve lane marking visibility, such as the extension of lane marking life expectancy (up to 1.5 times), improvement of lane marking equipment productivity, improvement of lane marking visibility by applying phosphorescent material mixed paint. Cost-benefit analysis was performed with considering various benefit items that can be expected. About 45% of traffic accidents would be prevented by improving lane marking visibility. Additionally, accident reduction benefit and traffic congestion reduction benefit were calculated as much as 246 billion KRW per year and 12 billion KRW per year, respectively, by reducing repaint cycle due to enhanced durability. 45 billion KRW per year is expected to reduced with improved lane detection performance of autonomous vehicle. Meanwhile, total increased cost when introducing phosphorescent material mixed paint to 91,195km of nationwide road is identified as 1922 billion KRW per year. However, economic feasibility could not be secured with 0.16 of cost-benefit ratio when applied to the road network as a whole. In case of "Accident Hot Spot" analyzing section window (400m), one or more fatality or two or more injured (one or more injured in case of less than 2 lanes per direction) per year were caused by pavement marking related accident, economic feasibility was secured. In detail, 3.91 of cost-benefit ratio is estimated with comparison of the installation cost for 5,697 of accident hot spot and accident reduction benefit. Some limitations and future research agenda have also been discussed.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.85-92
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• 2012

PURPOSES : Since expressways in South Korea are toll roads, many trumpet type interchanges exist, resulting in the installation of loop ramps very frequently. While the travel speed of the main lane is designed to be 100-110 km/h, the structure of a loop ramp is different and is designed for a minimum speed of 40 km/h. In fact, most of the actual travel speeds measured on the ramp exceed the designated speed, which has been a major problem in traffic safety. In this research, a type of pavement marking speed-reduction treatment called the "Peripheral Transverse Line" is installed on expressway loop ramps in order to study the change of driving speeds after the installation. METHODS : To verify statistically the change, this speed-reduction treatment has been installed on the Chungju interchange and the Yeoju junction. The driving speeds before the installation were compared with driving speeds both one month and five monthsafter the installation. RESULTS : As a result, the reductions of the average driving speeds after the treatment were statistically significant. More specifically, the average driving speeds of the Chungju interchange were reduced by 7.1-7.7 % for its tangent road section, and the speeds decreased by 8.5-9.5 % for its curve section. Similarly, in the Yeoju junction, an average speed reduction of 2.9-4.8 % for its tangent section was measured, along with 3.9% long-term speed reduction for its curve section. CONCLUSIONS : Since the pavement marking speed-reduction treatment has been partially proven to be effective from this research, we expect to expand this treatment and re-confirm the effect from a long-term perspective in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.800-803
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• 2008

Road is one of the infrastructure facilities, on which lines include various information for guiding a smooth traffic flow. This line marking work is continually removed and re-marked during maintenance. However, some problems exist when the line marking work is conducted. Traditional methods of using grinders and torches have risk of repetitive skill, and workers are exposed directly to the hazardous situations. Moreover, even though the equipment has developed, the line removing work induces environmental contamination and pollution line on the road. Therefore, this study can become one of the eco-friendly cleaning technologies using dry ice blaster equipment, and the new development of equipment will improve method of pavement marking removal. Also, it can introduce innovative automation in construction.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.185-194
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• 2014

This study investigates the methodology to evaluate the quantified performance of pavement markings and traffic guide signs using digital images. This methodology is significant to attempt to quantify their performance without large brightness photometer at the nighttime and bad weather. The retroreflective performance of pavement markings are evaluated through the contrast of gray levels of pavements and markings in collected digital images under the case of rain, dampness, and dryness. In addition, the appraisal of retroreflective performance of traffic guide signs are implemented through the comparison between interior illuminated and the existing retroreflective traffic guide signs using the contrast of luminance extracted from the value of RGB of backgrounds and legends in collected digital images according to geometric design, driving lanes, and the distance between the car and the sign. As a result, the retroreflective performance of pavement markings deteriorates about 3.5 times and 2 times under the case of rain and dampness respectively than dryness. Also, the performance of the existing traffic guide signs is significantly influenced by geometric design, driving lanes, and the distance, otherwise interior illuminated traffic guide signs. This methodology can be utilized to construct objective information of performance of traffic safety facilities to select appropriate position of expensive high reflective pavement markings and interior illuminated traffic guide signs considering diverse weather and geometric design.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.73-83
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• 2016

Pedestrian safety was recently highlighted with a yellow carpet, a yellow-colored pavement material prepared for children waiting for signals for pedestrian crossing, without validation of its efficiency in practice. It was a promising device likely to assist highway safety by stimulating pedestrian to step on the yellow-colored area; it was generally called nudge effects. This paper delivers a study conducted to check the effectiveness of yellow carpet in three different aspects in vehicle driver's perspective by applying the newly introduced information technology (IT) service: Visual Attention Software (VAS). It was assumed that VAS developed by 3M in the United States should be able explain the Korean drivers' visual reaction behaviors since technology embedded in VAS was developed based on and proved by other various international countries and continents in the world. A set of pictures was taken at thirteen different field sites in seven school zone areas in the Seoul metropolitan area before and after the installation of a yellow carpet, respectively. Sets of those pictures were analyzed with VAS, and the results were compared based on the selective safety measures: the likely focusing on standing pedestrians (waiting for a pedestrian's green signal time) affected by its background (yellow-colored pavement) contrasting him or her. The test results from a set of before-and-after comparison analyses showed that the placement of yellow carpet would (1) increase 71% of driver's visual attention on pedestrian crossing areas and (2) change the sequential order of visual attention on that area 2.4 steps ahead. The findings would enhance deployment of such promising efficiency and thus increase children safety in pedestrian crossing. The result was promising to highlight the way to support the changes in conservative traffic safety engineering field by applying the advanced IT services, while much robust research was recommended to overcome the limitation of simplification of this study.