Road condition monitoring using on-board Three-axis Accelerometer and GPS Sensor

A study by US Federal Highway Administration has shown that road condition is an essential factor of highway quality and smooth roads will lead to more comfortable driving experience and less municipal investment. International Roughness Index (IRI) has been widely used to measure pavement smoothness because it can provide a consistent rating for different measurement tools. However, existing measuring tools based on IRI are usually very expensive. In this paper, we present a low-cost vehicle-based solution, Road Condition Monitoring with Three-axis Accelerometers and GPS Sensors (RCM-TAGPS), by using a cheap three-axis accelerometer and a GPS sensor embedded in a vehicle to monitor the road condition. We analyze the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of pavement roughness, estimate IRI, and classify the pavement roughness level into four levels according to a Chinese industry standard. Experimental results show that RCM-TAGPS can evaluate pavement roughness level correctly, even under some interference like potholes, manholes and decelerating belts, and the total cost of RCM-TAGPS in each vehicle is no more than 50 dollars, which is about 1/4400 to 1/160 of the existing system used in civil engineering and municipal engineering.