Systems and methods of determining road quality
AssigneeFreeport-Mcmoran Corporation
InventorsMary Amelia Walker, Robert Catron, Brian Vaughan, Hung Jung Lu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for determining road quality includes a vehicle equipped with sensors to detect a position of the vehicle on the road and a suspension strut parameter indicative of road quality. The suspension strut parameter may be suspension strut pressure or suspension strut cylinder stroke. A threshold range is established outside of which an absolute value of the suspension strut parameter is associated with poor road quality. A computerized system generates a heat map to display relative quality of road segments.
Claims25
A method of determining road quality, comprising:
- traversing the road with a vehicle;
- tracking a position of the vehicle as the vehicle traverses one or more segments of the road;
- measuring a suspension strut parameter of the vehicle as the vehicle traverses the road;
- associating the measured suspension strut parameter with vehicle position;
- establishing a threshold range of the suspension strut parameter, values outside of this threshold range being indicative of poor road quality;
- determining instances where an absolute value of the suspension strut parameter exceeds the threshold value as an indicator of poor road quality associated with a portion of the road;
- reporting a quality status of multiple segments of the road;
- and
- generating a heat map to display relative quality of the multiple segments of the road.
A method of determining the quality of a road, comprising:
- traversing the road with a vehicle;
- tracking a position of the vehicle as the vehicle traverses the road;
- measuring a suspension strut pressure of the vehicle as the vehicle traverses the road;
- correlating the measured suspension strut pressure with vehicle position on the road;
- identifying local minima and maxima of the measured suspension strut pressure;
- determining an amplitude between the local minima and the local maxima;
- averaging the amplitudes of a plurality of local minima and maxima to produce an average amplitude;
- determining whether the average amplitude exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein an average amplitude that is less than the predetermined threshold corresponds to a road segment of quality ‘good’ and wherein an average amplitude that is greater than the predetermined threshold corresponds to a road segment of quality ‘bad;’ and
- generating a heat map of the quality of the road segments along the road.
A system for determining the quality of a road, comprising:
- a network;
- a vehicle having at least one suspension strut;
- at least one position sensor operatively associated with said vehicle, said position sensor sensing a position of said vehicle, said position sensor being operatively connected to said network;
- at least pressure sensor operatively associated with the suspension strut of said vehicle, said pressure sensor sensing a suspension strut pressure, said pressure sensor being operatively connected to said network;
- a processing system operatively associated with said network;
- and
- a display system operatively associated with said processing system, wherein said processing system is configured to:
- record the suspension strut pressure and position of the vehicle as the vehicle traverses the road;
- correlate the suspension strut pressure with vehicle position on the road;
- identify local minima and maxima of the suspension strut pressure;
- determine an amplitude between the local minima and the local maxima;
- average the amplitudes of a plurality of local minima and maxima to produce an average amplitude;
- and
- display a heat map of road quality along the road, the road quality being based on the average amplitudes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.