Method and apparatus for estimation road surface type using ultrasonic signal

An apparatus for estimation road surface type using an ultrasonic signal, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and,
• at least one memory storing computer-executable instructions,
• wherein the computer-executable instructions stored in said at least one memory, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
• (a) extracting a 1D feature vector through one or more 1D convolutional layers using an input signal derived from a reflection signal in the time domain of the ultrasonic signal reflected from the road surface after being emitted to the road surface;
• (b) receiving the 1D feature vector as an input and estimating a probability value for each road surface type in an artificial neural network having one or more layers;
• and,
• (c) determining the road surface type from the estimated probability value for each road surface type.

An apparatus for estimation road surface type using an ultrasonic signal, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• a memory for storing a convolution filter for convolution operation;
• a feature extractor for extracting a 1D feature vector through one or more 1D convolutional layers using an input signal derived from a reflection signal in the time domain of the ultrasonic signal reflected from the road surface after being emitted to the road surface;
• and
• a classifier that receives the 1D feature vector as an input and estimates a probability value for each road surface type in an artificial neural network having one or more layers.