Surface Analysis Techniques for Potential Application to Onboard Road Traction Assessment

The prime factor controlling vehicles direction and speed, in addition to braking distance, is skid resistance which is highly related to the characteristics of the pavements and especially to surface roughness. Hence, it is proposed to assess road ahead conditions in real-time with a texture analyzer exploiting shadow-hiding effect. This sensor can provide from non-contact acquisitions texture parameters whose intrinsic meaning is consistent with an automotive purpose. After explaining the underlying phenomena, the original physical principles are described and a validation is achieved on surfaces with controlled characteristics.