Automated Winter Road Maintenance Using Road Surface Condition Measurements

Automated Winter Road Maintenance Using Road Surface Condition Measurements PDF Author: Gurkan Erdogan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Friction
Languages : en
Pages : 79

Get Book Here

Book Description
Real-time measurement of tire-road friction coefficient is extremely valuable for winter road maintenance operations and can be used to optimize the kind and quantity of the deicing and anti-icing chemicals applied to the roadway. In this project, a wheel based tire-road friction coefficient measurement system is first developed for snowplows. Unlike a traditional Norse meter, this system is based on measurement of lateral tire forces, has minimal moving parts and does not use any actuators. Hence, it is reliable and inexpensive. A key challenge is quickly detecting changes in estimated tire-road friction coefficient while rejecting the high levels of noise in measured force signals. Novel filtering and signal processing algorithms are developed to address this challenge including a biased quadratic mean filter and an accelerometer based vibration removal filter. Detailed experimental results are presented on the performance of the friction estimation system on different types of road surfaces. Experimental results show that the biased quadratic mean filter works very effectively to eliminate the influence of noise and quickly estimate changes in friction coefficient. Further, the use of accelerometers and an intelligent algorithm enables elimination of the influence of driver steering maneuvers, thus providing a robust friction measurement system. In the second part of the project, the developed friction measurement system is used for automated control of the chemical applicator on the snowplow. An electronic interface is established with the Force America applicator to enable real-time control. A feedback control system that utilizes the developed friction measurement sensor and a pavement temperature sensor is developed and implemented on the snowplow.

Automated Winter Road Maintenance Using Road Surface Condition Measurements

Automated Winter Road Maintenance Using Road Surface Condition Measurements PDF Author: Gurkan Erdogan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Friction
Languages : en
Pages : 79

Get Book Here

Book Description
Real-time measurement of tire-road friction coefficient is extremely valuable for winter road maintenance operations and can be used to optimize the kind and quantity of the deicing and anti-icing chemicals applied to the roadway. In this project, a wheel based tire-road friction coefficient measurement system is first developed for snowplows. Unlike a traditional Norse meter, this system is based on measurement of lateral tire forces, has minimal moving parts and does not use any actuators. Hence, it is reliable and inexpensive. A key challenge is quickly detecting changes in estimated tire-road friction coefficient while rejecting the high levels of noise in measured force signals. Novel filtering and signal processing algorithms are developed to address this challenge including a biased quadratic mean filter and an accelerometer based vibration removal filter. Detailed experimental results are presented on the performance of the friction estimation system on different types of road surfaces. Experimental results show that the biased quadratic mean filter works very effectively to eliminate the influence of noise and quickly estimate changes in friction coefficient. Further, the use of accelerometers and an intelligent algorithm enables elimination of the influence of driver steering maneuvers, thus providing a robust friction measurement system. In the second part of the project, the developed friction measurement system is used for automated control of the chemical applicator on the snowplow. An electronic interface is established with the Force America applicator to enable real-time control. A feedback control system that utilizes the developed friction measurement sensor and a pavement temperature sensor is developed and implemented on the snowplow.

Gravel Roads

Gravel Roads PDF Author: Ken Skorseth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gravel roads
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Get Book Here

Book Description
The purpose of this manual is to provide clear and helpful information for maintaining gravel roads. Very little technical help is available to small agencies that are responsible for managing these roads. Gravel road maintenance has traditionally been "more of an art than a science" and very few formal standards exist. This manual contains guidelines to help answer the questions that arise concerning gravel road maintenance such as: What is enough surface crown? What is too much? What causes corrugation? The information is as nontechnical as possible without sacrificing clear guidelines and instructions on how to do the job right.

Automated Vehicle Location, Data Recording, Friction Measurement and Applicator Control for Winter Road Maintenance

Automated Vehicle Location, Data Recording, Friction Measurement and Applicator Control for Winter Road Maintenance PDF Author: Gurkan Erdogan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Friction
Languages : en
Pages : 51

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first part of this project conducted a detailed evaluation of the ability of a new friction measurement system to provide an accurate measure of road conditions. A system that records friction coefficient as a function of road location was developed using the same vehicle location measurement system as the current MDSS project. Studies conducted show that the friction measurement system provides a significantly more reliable measure of road surface conditions than does visual inspection. The second part of this project focused on a detailed evaluation of the performance of a closed-loop system that utilizes friction measurement for automatic applicator control. Experimental studies have shown that a friction measurement based zero velocity sander can adequately apply salt/chemicals to all slippery spots on a road at speeds up to 25 mph. The final part of this project focused on enhancement of the developed automatic applicator control system with utilization of real-time data from a geographical information system that provides information on upcoming geometric road alignment and known problematic segments of roadway. The developed friction measurement, data recording and applicator control system is compact, modular and can be used on both snowplows and pick-up trucks.

Performance Measurement for Highway Winter Maintenance Operations

Performance Measurement for Highway Winter Maintenance Operations PDF Author: Lin Qiu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Roads
Languages : en
Pages : 134

Get Book Here

Book Description
The goal of this research project was to develop a method to measure the performance of a winter maintenance program with respect to the task of providing safety and mobility to the traveling public. Developing these measures required a number of steps, each of which was accomplished. First, the impact of winter weather on safety (crash rates) and mobility (average vehicle speeds) were measured by a combination of literature reviews and analysis of Iowa Department of Transportation traffic and Road Weather Information System data. Second, because not all winter storms are the same in their effects on safety and mobility, a method had to be developed to determine how much the various factors that describe a winter storm actually change safety and mobility. As part of this effort a storm severity index was developed, which ranks each winter storm on a scale between 0 (a very benign storm) and I (the worst imaginable storm). Additionally a number of methods of modeling the relationships between weather, winter maintenance actions and road surface conditions were developed and tested. The end result of this study was a performance measure based on average vehicle speed. For a given class of road, a maximum expected average speed reduction has been identified. For a given storm, this maximum expected average speed reduction is modified by the storm severity index to give a target average speed reduction. Thus, if for a given road the maximum expected average speed reduction is 20 mph, and the storm severity for a particular storm is 0.6, then the target average speed reduction for that road in that storm is 0.6 x 20 mph or 12 mph. If the average speed on that road during and after the storm is only 12 mph or less than the average speed on that road in good weather conditions, then the winter maintenance performance goal has been met.

Feasibility of Using Traffic Data for Winter Road Maintenance Performance Measurement

Feasibility of Using Traffic Data for Winter Road Maintenance Performance Measurement PDF Author: Luchao Cao
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 125

Get Book Here

Book Description
Winter road maintenance (WRM) operations, such as plowing, salting and sanding, are significant to maintain both safety and mobility of highways, especially in countries like Canada. Traditionally, WRM performance is measured using bare pavement regain time and snow depth/coverage, which are reported by maintenance or quality assurance personnel based on periodic visual inspection during and after snow events. However, the increasing costs associated with WRM and the lack of objectivity and repeatability of traditional performance monitoring methods have stimulated significant interest in developing alternative performance measures. This research is motivated by the need to develop an outcome based WRM performance measurement system with a specific focus on investigating the feasibility of inferring WRM performance from traffic state. The research studies the impact of winter weather and road surface conditions (RSC) on the average traffic speed of rural highways with the intention of examining the feasibility of using traffic speed from traffic sensors as an indicator of WRM performance. Detailed data on weather, RSC, and traffic over three winter seasons from 2008 to 2011 on rural highway sites in Iowa, US is used for this investigation. Three modeling techniques are applied and compared for modeling the relationship between traffic speed and various road weather and surface condition factors, including multivariate linear regression, artificial neural network (ANN), and time series analysis. Multivariate linear regression models are compared by temporal aggregation (15 minutes vs. 60 minutes), types of highways (two-lane vs. four-lane), and model types (separated vs. combined). The research also examines the feasibility of estimating/classifying RSC based on traffic speed and winter weather factors using multi-layer logistic regression classification trees. The modeling results have shown the expected effects of weather variables including precipitation, temperature and wind speed, and verified the statistically strong relationship between traffic speed and RSC. The findings suggest that speed could potentially be used as an indicator of bare pavement conditions and thus the performance of WRM operations. It is also confirmed that the time series model could be a valuable tool for predicting real-time traffic conditions based on weather forecast and planned maintenance operations, and the multi-layer logistic regression classification tree model could be applied for estimating RSC on highways based on average traffic speed and weather conditions.

Annual Report

Annual Report PDF Author: University of Minnesota. Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book Here

Book Description


Roads and Airports Pavement Surface Characteristics

Roads and Airports Pavement Surface Characteristics PDF Author: Maurizio Crispino
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000954900
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 1066

Get Book Here

Book Description
Roads and Airports Pavement Surface Characteristics contains the papers presented at the 9th International Symposium on Pavement Surface Characteristics (SURF 2022, Milan, Italy, 12-14 September 2022). The symposium was jointly organized by the Italian company that manages Italy’s National Roads (ANAS –Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group), the World Road Association (PIARC) and Politecnico di Milano. The contributions aim to improve the quality of pavement surface characteristics while accomplishing efficiency, safety, sustainability, and addressing new generation mobility needs. The book covers topics from emerging research to engineering practice, and is divided in the following sections: Advanced and performing construction methods and equipment Next generation mobility Data monitoring and performance assessment Surface features and performances| Maintenance and preservation treatments Pavement management Economic and political strategies Safety and risk issues Minimizing road impacts Sustainability and performances issues about materials and design Pavements surfaces and urban heat islands Weather conditions impact Airport pavements Roads and Airports Pavement Surface Characteristics is of interest to academics, engineers and professionals in the fields of pavement engineering, transport infrastructure, and related disciplines.

Sustainable Winter Road Operations

Sustainable Winter Road Operations PDF Author: Xianming Shi
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119185068
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first and only comprehensive guide to best practices in winter road operations Winter maintenance operations are essential to ensure the safety, mobility, and productivity of transportation systems, especially in cold-weather climates, and responsible agencies are continually challenged to provide a high level of service in a fiscally and environmentally responsible manner. Sustainable Winter Road Operations bridges the knowledge gaps, providing the first up-to-date, authoritative, single-source overview and guide to best practices in winter road operations that considers the triple bottom line of sustainability. With contributions from experts in the field from around the world, this book takes a holistic approach to the subject. The authors address the many negative impacts on regional economies and the environment of poorly planned and inadequate winter road operations, and they make a strong case for the myriad benefits of environmentally sustainable concepts and practices. Best practice applications of materials, processes, equipment, and associated technologies and how they can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of winter operations, optimize materials usage, and minimize cost, corrosion, and environmental impacts are all covered in depth. Provides the first up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive overview of best practices in sustainable winter road operations currently in use around the world Covers materials, processes, equipment, and associated technologies for sustainable winter road operations Brings together contributions by an international all-star team of experts with extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing sustainable winter road operations Designed to bring professionals involved in transportation and highway maintenance and control up to speed with current best practice Sustainable Winter Road Operations is essential reading for maintenance professionals dealing with snow and ice control operations on highways, motorways and local roads. It is a valuable source of information and guidance for decision makers, researchers, and engineers in transportation engineering involved in transportation and highway maintenance. And it is an ideal textbook for advanced-level courses in transportation engineering.

An Automatic Image Recognition System for Winter Road Condition Monitoring

An Automatic Image Recognition System for Winter Road Condition Monitoring PDF Author: Raqib Omer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Get Book Here

Book Description
Municipalities and contractors in Canada and other parts of the world rely on road surface condition information during and after a snow storm to optimize maintenance operations and planning. With an ever increasing demand for safer and more sustainable road network there is an ever increasing demand for more reliable, accurate and up-to-date road surface condition information while working with the limited available resources. Such high dependence on road condition information is driving more and more attention towards analyzing the reliability of current technology as well as developing new and more innovative methods for monitoring road surface condition. This research provides an overview of the various road condition monitoring technologies in use today. A new machine vision based mobile road surface condition monitoring system is proposed which has the potential to produce high spatial and temporal coverage. The proposed approach uses multiple models calibrated according to local pavement color and environmental conditions potentially providing better accuracy compared to a single model for all conditions. Once fully developed, this system could potentially provide intermediate data between the more reliable fixed monitoring stations, enabling the authorities with a wider coverage without a heavy extra cost. The up to date information could be used to better plan maintenance strategies and thus minimizing salt use and maintenance costs.

Evaluation of ODOT Roadway/weather Sensor Systems for Snow & Ice Removal Operations

Evaluation of ODOT Roadway/weather Sensor Systems for Snow & Ice Removal Operations PDF Author: Helmut T. Zwahlen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Automobile driving in winter
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Get Book Here

Book Description
The major objective of the study was to develop a procedure to determine the level of service using the RWIS speed measurements. The procedure developed can be used by ODOT to evaluate winter maintenance activities and for winter maintenance decision making. Average traffic speeds for five minute intervals were measured using NuMetrics road sensors and they were related to the pavement and driving conditions. In addition speed data from two other studies was used. The pavement conditions were determined by conducting surveys at rest area buildings using a questionnaire form. It was found that the average traffic speeds were significantly lower during a major snow event even when periodic plowing and salting was done. The average speeds decreased almost linearly for the period of the snow storm reached the minimum and then climbed back slowly towards higher speeds. The speeds appear to be a fairly sensitive measure to judge the condition of the pavement. The motorist judgments about the pavement condition and their perception of the safety of driving decreases during a rather severe winter storm which is mirrored in the speed decrease. It appears from the survey that about two thirds of the motorists judge the deterioration of the road conditions and the inadequate level of road maintenance during a winter storm as bad or moderately bad. The responses obtained for the car and the truck drivers are fairly close to each other indicating that both groups can judge bad road condition equally well. The observed road conditions appear to influence the drivers in terms of how they subjectively feel about the level of safety and stress experienced during driving in the winter storm. A simple procedure was developed for winter maintenance management to determine the condition of the road (freeways) based on the average speeds observed by the RWIS sensors. If the average winter speed of the traffic is equal or greater than the historical established wet/salted pavement speed, the level of service is considered adequate. According to the Swiss study, the wet/salted surface winter speeds are about 85% of the dry surface speeds for freeways and 96 % for city streets. If the average winter speed is below the wet/salted surface speed, the level of service is considered inadequate. Any speed less than 50% of the wet/salted surface speed indicates fairly bad road conditions and an extremely inadequate level of service. It should be noted that the winter pavement conditions can be highly dynamic. Depending on the rate of accumulation of snow, frequency of the snow plowing, length of the snow plow route, the pavement condition can improve and deteriorate a number of times during a winter storm. The level of service can get worse even with maximum snow plowing and salting effort in a situation with a high rate of snow accumulation. The winter speeds observed as a percentage of the average dry surface speed can be correlated with the level of service. A relatively more fine graduation of the level of service as a function of the percentage of the average dry surface speed is proposed in the recommendations of the report.