Project 2.7
This project aims to find the accelerometer-based method of measuring road roughness which provides the closest match to profilometric-based methods. Road roughness is an important indicator of the level of service and cost to the user of using the road. Initially – until the 1990s – it was estimated through calibrated measurement of the displacement of vehicle chassis relative to the point of contact with the road. In the 1990s, we developed the means to directly measure changes in profile height on the road and link that to the International Roughness Index. Both require specific and sometimes expensive equipment.
With the advent of smartphones and compact measuring & computing powers, attention is turning to use 3-axis accelerometry to estimate road roughness. This is done through mobile phone apps and similar low-cost and uncalibrated technologies. What is not known is the relationship between the definitive profilometric measurement of roughness and roughness measured by ‘handheld’ accelerometer devices such as mobile phones.
Hypothesis 1: There is a means of accelerometric measurement of road roughness that provides measurements of sufficient accuracy for some road management purposes.
Hypothesis 2: some or all the following factors influence the extent to which accelerometric based roughness correlates with profilometer-measured roughness:
- Wavelength/type of roughness
- Vehicle type, age and/or and inbuilt accelerometers
- Mobile phone type
- Type of specialised accelerometry measurement device e.g. U Pretoria’s SmartAvo
- App used to process accelerometer data
- Location of the accelerometer within the vehicle
- Dr Yihai Fang (LCI - Monash University)
- Dr Michael Shackleton
