Evaluation of a Bicycle-Mounted Ultrasonic Distance Sensor for Monitoring Road Surface Condition

In the case of cycling at a blind road, at night or cycling by elderly people, it is helpful to prevent accidents if information on bad road surface condition, such as break, potholes, obstacles, bumps, is preliminary obtained. In this paper, we consider to use a low-cost ultrasonic distance sensor attached on a bicycle for monitoring the road surface conditions in the front area. We design and implement a road surface condition monitoring system using an off-the-shelf node Arduino, an ultrasonic distance sensor, and a typical bicycle. In the implemented system, to limit the sensing region, the ultrasonic distance sensor is covered by a plastic shield plate. Through experimental evaluations, we show that the monitoring system can detect the 223 cm away obstacle on road in the front area of moving bicycle.