Road surface roughness estimation employing integrated position and acceleration sensor

Assessment of a surface quality being an essential task for the authorities supervising the roads provides the subject of the paper. Information about riding quality of a pavement, important for drivers, both in terms of their comfort and safety is collected during experiments employing mobile sensors. The paper describes the use of a miniature position and acceleration sensor for evaluation of the roughness of the road surface. The device designed for the installation in vehicles includes a built-in multi-axis accelerometer and a GPS receiver. Measurement data were collected on the basis of road trip records with regards to diversified roughness of the surface and to varied vehicle speed on each investigated road section. Data were gathered for various vehicle body types and then attempts were made to the classification of the road surface based on the created algorithm.