Road Surface Shape Measuring Device Using Segmented Region Analysis

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current road surface shape measuring devices require a large amount of data and perform extensive calculations to recognize the shape of a road surface with undulation, making them inefficient in terms of computational resources.

Innovation Solution

The device includes a road surface information acquisition unit that segments the road surface into regions and a determining unit that estimates the surface shape for each segmented region using acquired data, reducing the computational load by focusing on local data sets and updating or correcting shapes as more information is collected.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If the device uses data from all measurement points on the road surface to recognize the shape, then the recognition accuracy is improved, but the calculation amount increases enormously

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveroad surface shape recognition accuracyVSAvoidcalculation amount
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The reference plane is divided into multiple segmented regions, and the road surface information is divided accordingly. The determining unit estimates surface shape separately for each segmented region using only the road surface information within that region, rather than processing all data points globally. This segmentation reduces the calculation amount while maintaining recognition accuracy for each local region.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Measurement precision

If the device processes road surface information from the entire reference plane, then the overall shape recognition is improved, but the processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveoverall road surface shape recognitionVSAvoidprocessing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The reference plane is divided into multiple segmented regions, and the determining unit estimates surface shape separately for each segmented region using only the road surface information within that region, rather than processing all data points globally. This segmentation reduces the calculation amount while maintaining recognition accuracy for each local region.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The determining unit estimates the surface shape for each segmented region using only the road surface information included in that segmented region, which is a partial set of the total data. This partial action approach reduces processing time while still providing sufficient information for practical road surface shape recognition in each region.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP3431926B1Road surface shape measuring device, measuring method, and program
Publication Date: 2021.08.11 OMRON CORP
  • EP3431926B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3431926B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3431926B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

According to the present invention, a device configured to apprehend a road surface shape by using data measured by a measuring device, etc., appropriately apprehends a road surface shape with a small amount of computation. A road surface shape measuring device 100 is provided with a road surface information acquiring unit 14' and a road surface shape determining unit 155. The road surface information acquiring unit 14' acquires road surface information I about each of multiple points on a road surface RS, the road surface information I including: a road surface position which is the position, of the road surface RS, on a reference plane SF divided into a plurality of sectioned regions G1-G87; and a road surface height which is the height of the road surface at the road surface position. The road surface shape determining unit 155 estimates respective surface shapes of the sectioned regions G1-G87 by using the road surface information I included in the corresponding sectioned regions, and thereby determines a partial shape or the entire shape of the road surface RS.