In the current winter road maintenance, the amount of salt (spreading density) is mostly determined by field personnel on the vehicles. The objective of the pilot project “Automatically controlled spreading of grit using new mobile sensors” commissioned by the Federal Highway Research Institute was to minimise the “subjective factors” involved in the application of ice-melting materials. The research project was based on the previous project „Optimisation of the degree of spreading material – Model to determine the spreading density objectively required in winter road clearance“ and also uses a newly developed contactless sensor. With this sensor, the water film thickness on the road surface and the current condition of the road can be included when calculating the optimum spreading density. The test installations have been tested in the highway maintenance depots at Greding and Münchberg. The implementation of assistance systems for determining the optimum spreading density based on parameters should be considered as an important step to carry out winter maintenance in the future in a more economical, safe manner and with minimum impact on the environment. Field trials carried out using the currently available technical equipment have resulted in initial findings and solutions. It was also clear that solutions cannot be expected in the short term. Practical solutions require sensors that provide accurate readings and increasingly detailed detection of road surface conditions. This can probably only be done with a larger number of sensors on a vehicle combined with image recognition techniques. On this basis it would be possible to record and evaluate all important information that the drivers of winter maintenance vehicles have in their field of vision today, with the added possibility of automatically processing the numerical data. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting