Road surface condition detection apparatus and method for operating thereof
OwnerSang Soo LEE, Khalid AHMAD +1inventors
InventorsSang Soo LEE, Khalid AHMAD, George BUABBUD
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Abstract
A road surface condition detection apparatus is provided. The road surface condition detection apparatus includes a light source configured to irradiate light to a road surface, a detector configured to receive reflected light reflected by the road surface from the light irradiated by the light source, and a processor configured to control the light source and the detector and to detect whether the road is frozen based on the reflected light.
Claims21
A road surface condition detection apparatus, comprising:
- a light source configured to irradiate light onto a road surface;
- a detector configured to receive reflected light reflected by the road surface in response to the light irradiated from the light source;
- and
- a processor configured to control the light source and the detector and to detect whether the road surface is frozen based on the reflected light,
- wherein the light source comprises:
- a first light source configured to output light in a first wavelength band in which an absorption coefficient of ice is greater than an absorption coefficient of water, the first wavelength band being selected to exhibit inversion of absorption characteristics between water and ice;
- and
- a second light source configured to output light in a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band, and
- wherein the processor is configured to:
- normalize first reflected light corresponding to the first wavelength band and second reflected light corresponding to the second wavelength band based on a reference reflectance value obtained from a dry road surface;
- calculate an intensity ratio between the normalized first reflected light and the normalized second reflected light;
- and
- determine whether the road surface is frozen by comparing the calculated intensity ratio with a reference value, and
- wherein the processor normalizes the first reflected light and the second reflected light by applying weights such that the first reflected light and the second reflected light obtained from the dry road surface are mapped to a same value.
A road surface condition detection apparatus, comprising:
- a light source configured to irradiate light onto a road surface;
- a detector configured to receive reflected light reflected by the road surface in response to the light irradiated from the light source;
- and
- a processor configured to control the light source and the detector and to detect whether the road surface is frozen based on the reflected light,
- wherein the light source comprises:
- a first light source configured to output light in a first wavelength band in which an absorption coefficient of ice is greater than an absorption coefficient of water, the first wavelength band being selected to exhibit inversion of absorption characteristics between water and ice;
- and
- a second light source configured to output light in a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band, and
- wherein the processor is configured to:
- normalize first reflected light corresponding to the first wavelength band and second reflected light corresponding to the second wavelength band based on a reference reflectance value obtained from a dry road surface;
- calculate an intensity ratio between the normalized first reflected light and the normalized second reflected light;
- and
- determine whether the road surface is frozen by comparing the calculated intensity ratio with a reference value,
- wherein the road surface condition detection apparatus further comprises a Brewster-reflection-based surface determination channel configured to determine whether the road surface is frozen using surface reflection characteristics of a medium formed on the road surface.
A road surface condition detection apparatus, comprising:
- a light source configured to irradiate light onto a road surface;
- a detector configured to receive reflected light reflected by the road surface in response to the light irradiated from the light source;
- and
- a processor configured to control the light source and the detector and to detect whether the road surface is frozen based on the reflected light,
- wherein the light source comprises:
- a first light source configured to output light in a first wavelength band in which an absorption coefficient of ice is greater than an absorption coefficient of water, the first wavelength band being selected to exhibit inversion of absorption characteristics between water and ice;
- and
- a second light source configured to output light in a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band, and
- wherein the processor is configured to:
- normalize first reflected light corresponding to the first wavelength band and second reflected light corresponding to the second wavelength band based on a reference reflectance value obtained from a dry road surface;
- calculate an intensity ratio between the normalized first reflected light and the normalized second reflected light;
- and
- determine whether the road surface is frozen by comparing the calculated intensity ratio with a reference value, and
- wherein the processor periodically performs measurement and normalization under dry weather conditions and updates the reference reflectance value in real time based on periodic measurement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.