Systems and methods for surface monitoring

A system for surface monitoring, the system comprising:

• at least one light source emitting structured light, the at least one light source mounted to a vehicle and painting a line on a target surface ahead of the vehicle moving along a travel path, the line painted with the structured light;
• at least one imager disposed at a known distance from the line, the at least one imager capturing image data of the line offset by a baseline corresponding to a nominal road surface, the image data representing vertical displacement of the target surface with corresponding deviation in the baseline;
• and
• a monitor determining a surface texture of the target surface using the image data, the surface texture of the target surface being reconstructed in three-dimensions, the three-dimensions including a first dimension providing a projected vertical position reconstructed using triangulation, a second dimension reconstructed using a length of the line, and a third dimension reconstructed based on movement of the vehicle along the travel path.

One or more tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions for performing a computer process on a computing system, the computer process comprising:

• receiving image data of a line painted on a target surface ahead of a vehicle moving along a travel path, the line painted with structured light emitted by at least one light source, the image data captured with at least one imager disposed at a known distance from the line, the at least one imager imaging the line offset by a baseline corresponding to a nominal road surface, the image data representing vertical displacement of the target surface with corresponding deviation in the baseline;
• determining a surface texture of the target surface using the image data, the surface texture of the target surface being reconstructed in three-dimensions, the surface texture including a micro-texture and a macro-texture of the target surface, the micro-texture being reconstructed in the three-dimensions, the macro-texture being reconstructed from a slope of a projected vertical position provided by one of the three-dimensions of the micro-texture;
• generating a surface profile for the target surface by comparing the surface texture to a set of reference surface profiles each corresponding to a known surface condition;
• and
• determining an estimated coefficient of friction for the target surface based on the surface profile.