• Atmosphere
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.471-479
• /
• 2014

A road surface temperature prediction model (UM-Road) using input data of the Unified Model (UM) output and road physical properties is developed and verified with the use of the observed data at road weather information system. The UM outputs of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, downward shortwave radiation, net longwave radiation, precipitation and the road properties such as slope angles, albedo, thermal conductivity, heat capacity at maximum 7 depth are used. The net radiation is computed by a surface radiation energy balance, the ground heat flux at surface is estimated by a surface energy balance based on the Monin-Obukhov similarity, the ground heat transfer process is applied to predict the road surface temperature. If the observed road surface temperature exists, the simulated road surface temperature is corrected by mean bias during the last 24 hours. The developed UM-Road is verified using the observed data at road side for the period from 21 to 31 March 2013. It is found that the UM-Road simulates the diurnal trend and peak values of road surface temperature very well and the 50% (90%) of temperature difference lies within ${\pm}1.5^{\circ}C$ (${\pm}2.5^{\circ}C$) except for precipitation case.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.177-185
• /
• 2013

PURPOSES : This study attempts to design and establish the road surface condition detection system by using the image processing that is expected to help implement the low-cost and high-efficiency road information detection system by examining technology trends in the field of road surface condition information detection and related case studies. METHODS : Adapted visual information collecting method(setting a stereo camera outside of the vehicle) and visual information algorithm(transform a Wavelet Transform, using the K-means clustering) Experiments and Analysis on Real-road, just as four states(Dry, Wet, Snow, Ice). RESULTS : Test results showed that detection rate of 95% or more was found under the wet road surface, and the detection rate of 85% or more in snowy road surface. However, the low detection rate of 30% was found under the icy road surface. CONCLUSIONS : As a method to improve the detection rate of the mobile road surface condition information detection system developed in this study, more accurate phase analysis in the image processing process was needed. If periodic synchronization through automatic settings of the camera according to weather or ambient light was not made at the time of image acquisition, a significant change in the values of polarization coefficients occurs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.150-156
• /
• 2017

A frozen road surface increases traffic accidents during the winter season. Hence, information on easily-frozen road sections and their specificities are required to prevent traffic accidents. Frozen road surfaces are determined by equipment measuring road surface temperatures. However, there are limitations in investigating the entire road network. Therefore, it is imperative to develop new methods that effectively determine road surface freezing risks. Meteorologically, road surfaces are frozen when the actual temperature cools down to the dew point temperature. Under this condition, there is likely to be frost if relative humidity reaches 100% and frozen road surfaces as the temperature gets lower. Meteorological characteristics give us an alternative to a direct measurement road surface temperature to estimate risks of road surface freezing. Based on the clues, the relationship between severity of traffic accidents and temperature changes is empirically investigated using Paju weather data. The results reveal that as the temperature gets lower and changes in current temperature are relatively small, the severity of traffic accidents become higher. In addition, the same is true when the difference between current temperature and the dew point temperature is relatively small, as it increases possibilities of road surface freezing. Future studies must investigate how current temperature and the dew point temperature affect road surface freezing and thereby establish a time-space scope to estimate possible road surface freezing sections using only weather and road material type data. This would provide invaluable information for predicting and preventing frozen road accidents based on weather patterns.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.303-308
• /
• 2017

Most automobile tire companies have not yet considered the geometric information of a road at the design stage of a tire because the topographical characterization of a road surface is very difficult owing to its vastness and randomness. A road surface shows variable surface roughness values according to magnification, and thus, the contact force between the road and tire significantly fluctuates with respect to the scale. In this study, we make an attempt to define a representative value for surface topographical information at multi-scale levels. To represent surface topography, we use a statistical method called power spectral density (PSD). We use the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and PSD to analyze the height profiles of a random surface. The FFT and PSD of a surface help in obtaining a fractal dimension, which is a representative value of surface topography at all length scales. We develop three surfaces with different fractal dimensions. We use finite element analysis (FEA) to observe the contact forces between a tire and the road surfaces with three different fractal dimensions. The results from FEA reveal that an increase in the fractal dimension decreases the contact length between the tire and road surfaces. On the contrary, the average contact force increases. This result indicates that designing and manufacturing a tire considering the fractal dimension of a road makes safe driving possible, owing to the improvement in service life and braking performance of the tire.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.149-155
• /
• 2022

This paper proposes a method for estimating the road surface condition and tilt angle using an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to improve the safety in the use of mobility aids for the elderly. The measurements of the accelerometers of the IMU usually include the accelerations caused by not only the gravitational force but also linear and rotational motions. Thus, the gravitational accelerations are first extracted using several physical constraints and then incorporated into the Kalman filter to estimate the tilt angle. In addition, because the magnitudes of the accelerations produced by the rotational motions (roll and pitch motions) vary with the road surface condition, a criterion based on such accelerations is presented to classify the condition of the road surface. The obtained road surface condition and tilt angle are finally combined to provide the safety information (e.g., safe, warning, and danger) for the user to improve the walking safety. Experiments were carried out and the results showed that the proposed method can provide the condition of the road surface, the tilt of the road surface, and the safety information correctly.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.329-339
• /
• 2022

Better understanding the mechanism of black ice occurrence on the road in winter is necessary to reduce the socio-economic damage it causes. In this study, intensive observations of road weather elements and surface information under the influence of synoptic high-pressure patterns (22^nd December, 2020 and 29^th January, and 25^th February, 2021) were carried out using a mobile observation vehicle. We found that temperature and road surface temperature change is significantly influenced by observation time, altitude and structure of the road, surrounding terrain, and traffic volume, especially in tunnels and bridges. In addition, even if the spatial distribution of temperature and road surface temperature for the entire observation route is similar, there is a difference between air and road surface temperatures due to the influence of current weather conditions. The observed road temperature, air temperature and air pressure in Nongong Bridge were significantly different to other fixed road weather observation points.

• Korean Journal of Artificial Intelligence
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.21-27
• /
• 2023

This paper discusses a deep learning-based road surface analysis system that collects data by installing vibration sensors on the 4-axis wheel bearings of a vehicle, analyzes the data, and appropriately classifies the characteristics of the current driving road surface for use in the vehicle's control system. The data used for road surface analysis is real-time large-capacity data, with 48K samples per second, and the A2B protocol, which is used for large-capacity real-time data communication in modern vehicles, was used to collect the data. CAN and CAN-FD commonly used in vehicle communication, are unable to perform real-time road surface analysis due to bandwidth limitations. By using A2B communication, data was collected at a maximum bandwidth for real-time analysis, requiring a minimum of 24K samples/sec for evaluation. Based on the data collected for real-time analysis, performance was assessed using deep learning models such as LSTM, GRU, and RNN. The results showed similar road surface classification performance across all models. It was also observed that the quality of data used during the training process had an impact on the performance of each model.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.127-135
• /
• 2018

PURPOSES : This study develops various models that can estimate the pattern of road surface temperature changes using machine learning methods. METHODS : Both a thermal mapping system and weather forecast information were employed in order to collect data for developing the models. In previous studies, the authors defined road surface temperature data as a response, while vehicular ambient temperature, air temperature, and humidity were considered as predictors. In this research, two additional factors-road type and weather forecasts-were considered for the estimation of the road surface temperature change pattern. Finally, a total of six models for estimating the pattern of road surface temperature changes were developed using the MATLAB program, which provides the classification learner as a machine learning tool. RESULTS : Model 5 was considered the most superior owing to its high accuracy. It was seen that the accuracy of the model could increase when weather forecasts (e.g., Sky Status) were applied. A comparison between Models 4 and 5 showed that the influence of humidity on road surface temperature changes is negligible. CONCLUSIONS : Even though Models 4, 5, and 6 demonstrated the same performance in terms of average absolute error (AAE), Model 5 can be considered the optimal one from the point of view of accuracy.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.121-132
• /
• 2018

Weather is an important factor affecting roadway transportation in many aspects such as traffic flow, driver 's driving patterns, and crashes. This study focuses on the relationship between weather and road surface condition and develops a model to estimate the road surface condition using machine learning. A road surface sensor was attached to the probe vehicle to collect road surface condition classified into three categories as 'dry', 'moist' and 'wet'. Road geometry information (curvature, gradient), traffic information (link speed), weather information (rainfall, humidity, temperature, wind speed) are utilized as variables to estimate the road surface condition. A variety of machine learning algorithms examined for predicting the road surface condition, and a two - stage classification model based on 'Random forest' which has the highest accuracy was constructed. 14 days of data were used to train the model and 2 days of data were used to test the accuracy of the model. As a result, a road surface state prediction model with 81.74% accuracy was constructed. The result of this study shows the possibility of estimating the road surface condition using the existing weather and traffic information without installing new equipment or sensors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.9-17
• /
• 2005

The objective of the study is to extract information about the road surfaces to be studied by analyzing asphalt concrete-paved road surface images photographed with a digital video camera. To analyze the accuracy of road surface information gained using a digital imagery processing method, it was compared and analyzed with the outcomes of control surveying. As a result, an average error of 0.0427 m in the X-axis direction, that of 0.0527 m in the Y-axis direction, and that of 0.1539 m in the Z-axis direction were found, good enough for mapping at a scale of 1:1,000 or less and GIS data. Besides, information on road surface assessment factors such as crack ratio, the amount of rutting and profile index was gained by analyzing processed digital imagery. This information made it possible to conduct road surface assessment by generating PSI and MCI. As quality digital image information has been gathered from roads and stored, important fundamental data on PMS (Pavement Management System) will become available in the future.