Vehicle-Based Road Surface Warnings for Infrastructure-Deficient Roads
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing road weather information systems are costly and difficult to deploy on all roads, leading to insufficient infrastructure for comprehensive road surface monitoring, particularly in infrastructure-deficient areas, making it challenging to manage and alert drivers about hazardous conditions like black ice.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that collects road surface information through vehicles, processes it using a server processor, and applies it to geographic information systems (GIS) to provide adaptive utilization, especially in infrastructure-deficient areas, using existing communication systems to distribute road surface determination models by vehicle type, and generate warnings based on risk levels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If road weather information systems are deployed to monitor road surface states, then road safety and driving guidance are improved, but installation and maintenance costs become prohibitively high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses vehicles as mobile copies of road monitoring equipment. Instead of deploying fixed road weather information systems at every location, the system utilizes vehicles passing through to collect road surface data (temperature, friction, images) and transmits it to a server. This copying approach allows comprehensive road monitoring without the high costs of installing and maintaining fixed infrastructure at every location.
Solution Approach 2:
The system leverages the vehicles' own sensors and communication capabilities to perform road monitoring functions. Vehicles equipped with temperature sensors, friction sensors, and cameras automatically collect and transmit road surface data without requiring separate dedicated monitoring equipment. This self-service approach reduces the need for specialized infrastructure while maintaining monitoring effectiveness.
2Loss of information
If road weather information systems are deployed comprehensively, then complete road surface monitoring is achieved, but infrastructure requirements and deployment difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system makes vehicles serve multiple functions: they continue their primary transportation role while simultaneously acting as mobile road monitoring stations. The same vehicle sensors used for driver assistance (temperature, friction, imaging) are utilized to collect road surface data for safety monitoring. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate dedicated monitoring infrastructure, reducing deployment complexity while achieving comprehensive information coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static fixed monitoring points to dynamic mobile monitoring units. Vehicles move continuously along roads, providing real-time road surface information from multiple locations and perspectives. This dynamic approach ensures comprehensive coverage of varying road conditions without requiring fixed infrastructure at every possible monitoring point, simplifying deployment while maintaining information completeness.
3Reliability
If vehicle-specific road surface determination models are distributed to different vehicle types, then driving safety guidance is improved, but system complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements vehicle-specific determination models tailored to different vehicle types (e.g., trucks, cars, motorcycles). Each vehicle type receives customized road surface temperature and friction thresholds appropriate for its characteristics. This local quality approach ensures that safety guidance is optimized for each vehicle type's specific performance and risk profile, improving reliability while the modular model structure keeps system complexity manageable through standardized processing frameworks.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to the adaptive utilization of road surface information. The system comprises at least one of an information distribution device or an information processing device. The information distribution device collects vehicle information from vehicles traveling a pre-identified infrastructure deficient section in which the amount of road surface detection information collected about a road is not greater than a preset reference amount, and the information processing device determines the road surface condition of the infrastructure deficient section on the basis of the vehicle information provided by the information distribution device, detects the level of travel risk for each vehicle type with respect to the determined road surface condition, generates a warning message for safe driving according to the detected level of travel risk for each vehicle type, and provides the warning message and road surface information to the vehicle via the information distribution device.