This study aims to evaluate the impact of pavement physical characteristics on the frequency of single-vehicle run-off-road (ROR) crashes in two-lane separated rural highways. In order to achieve this goal and to introduce the most accurate crash prediction model (CPM), authors have tried to develop generalized linear models, including the Poisson regression (PR), negative binomial regression (...

This paper analyzed the structure and principle of a regenerative electromagnetic shock absorber in detail. The innovative shock absorber resembles linear generator in principle and can generate electric power through the relative reciprocating motion between coil assembly and permanent magnet assembly. At the same time, the damping can remove discomfort caused by road roughness. The regenerate...

Interpreting laser data to allow autonomous robot navigation on paved as well as dirt roads using a fixed angle 2D laser scanner is a daunting task. This paper introduces an algorithm for terrain classification that fuses seven distinctly different classifiers: raw height, roughness, step size, curvature, slope, width and invalid data. These are then used to extract road borders, traversable te...

We study the average separation between an elastic solid and a hard solid, with a nominally flat but randomly rough surface, as a function of the squeezing pressure. We present experimental results for a silicon rubber (PDMS) block with a flat surface squeezed against an asphalt road surface. The theory shows that an effective repulsive pressure acts between the surfaces of the form p∼exp(-u/u(...

For the characterization of surface height profiles we present a new stochastic approach which is based on the theory of Markov processes. With this analysis we achieve a characterization of the complexity of the surface roughness by means of a Fokker-Planck or Langevin equation, providing the complete stochastic information of multiscale joint probabilities. The method was applied to different...

The path planning problem is an important problem in the research area of robot, games and group animation. This paper shows a 2.5-dimensional terrain grid which can reduce the amount of computation. By applying the fuzzy logic theory, the terrain trafficability of the rugged road can be evaluated based on different gradient, roughness, elevation difference; the trafficability factor can be ach...