Speed Bumps Research Articles

Deep learning based speed bumps detection and characterization using smartphone sensors

In recent years lot of research has been done on road surface anomaly detection due to the widespread availability of smartphones, pre-equipped with diverse sensors. The existing literature is mainly focused on speed bump, pot-hole and man-hole and does not provide any information about the type of bumps. Speed bumps have four major types i.e. sinusoidal-profile, flat-top, thermoplastic and round-top. The decision of deploying a particular type is made based upon the location and the speed limit in that area. In this paper we not only detect speed bumps but also identify the bump types. We first collected the speed bump dataset from smartphone sensors and performed series of dataset transformations. Using this dataset we proposed and experimented with deep learning-based speed bump detection and characterization system which is able to achieve the test accuracy of 98.92% and 95% respectively. This work can, not only help the government and policymakers to identify illegal speed bumps but also help decrease the number of road accidents, avoid damage to the vehicles, and reduce the environmental, health as well as financial losses due to non-standard or sub-standard bump types. Moreover, this work can be integrated into road navigation apps like Google Maps, Waze, etc. which can help determine the optimal routes for the drivers.

Assessing the built environment, programs, and policies that support physical activity opportunities in the rural Deep South

Disparities in physical activity (PA) exist in rural regions and prior research suggests environmental features and community resources likely contribute. It is important to identify the opportunities and barriers that influence activity to appropriately inform PA interventions in such areas. Thus, we assessed the built environment, programs and policies related to PA opportunity in six rural Alabama counties that were purposively selected to inform a PA randomized controlled trial. Assessments were conducted August 2020-May 2021 using the Rural Active Living Assessment. Town characteristics and recreational amenities were captured using the Town Wide Assessment (TWA). PA programs and policies were examined with the Program and Policy Assessment. Walkability was evaluated using the Street Segment Assessment (SSA). Using the scoring system (0–100), the overall TWA score was 49.67 (range: 22–73), indicating few schools within walking distance (≤5 miles of the town’s center) and town-wide amenities (e.g., trails, water/recreational activities) for PA. The Program and Policy Assessment showed a paucity of programming and guidelines to support activity (overall average score of 24.67, [range: 22–73]). Only one county had a policy requiring walkways/bikeways in new public infrastructure projects. During assessment of 96 street segments, few pedestrian-friendly safety features [sidewalks (32%), crosswalks (19%), crossing signals (2%), and public lighting (21%)] were observed. Limited opportunities for PA (parks and playgrounds) were identified. Barriers such as few policies and safety features (crossing signals, speed bumps) were indicated as factors that should be addressed when developing PA interventions and informing future policy efforts.

Vertebrate road kills on State Highway 26 in Khandwa Forest Division, central India

The road network is spreading rapidly in human dominated as well as forested areas in India. Roads passing through forested areas are known to negatively impact wildlife populations by contributing to wildlife-road kills besides causing habitat fragmentation, soil erosion, and disruption of gene flow. This paper documents encounters of wildlife road kills on the State Highway 26 (SH 26) passing through the forested area of Khandwa Territorial Forests in central India. Between October 2015 and June 2017 and from November 2021 to June 2022 we collected opportunistic data on wildlife mortalities on SH 26. We recorded 61 wildlife mortalities on a stretch of 34 km of SH 26. Of the road kills encountered, 71% were birds, 21% were mammals, and 8% were herpetofauna. Highest among bird kills were members of nightjars (Caprimulgidae) (26%) and owls (Strigidae) (23%). Among owls, we recorded two road kills of the endangered Forest Owlet Athene blewitti and individuals of five other owl species. Among other taxa, road-hits of Jungle Cat, Indian Palm Civet, Golden Jackal, Central Indian Langur, and a few snakes were recorded. Most bird kills on the road were recorded in February while the highest number of mammal and herpetofauna kills were recorded in the month of November. We report that the land use around the road and species trait contribute to vulnerability of a species to road-hit. Based on the frequency of road kills, we have identified seven hotspots of road kills on SH 26. Since road construction is one of the major mandates of the Government in India, it is suggested to carry out systematic environment impact assessment on existing and proposed roads to understand the patterns of spatio-temporal incidents of road kills. Planting of tall trees and installation of speed bumps and signboards to alert drivers should be planned at the initial stage of road construction. If appropriate mitigation measures to prevent wildlife mortalities are incorporated while the road is being constructed, it may be possible to bridge the gap between development and conservation.

Speed Control of Mobile Robots Using Vibration Stimuli from Bumpy Road Surface

Speed bumps and rumble strips have been introduced into the traffic infrastructure to improve traffic safety. When a vehicle travels on a road where speed bumps and rumble strips are installed, vibration stimuli are transmitted to the driver to encourage control of the speed and position of the vehicle. In this letter, speed bumps are applied to an automated driving system. More precisely, this letter considers the speed control of a mobile robot using vibration stimuli from bumpy road surfaces. We formulated a design problem for a speed control law for a mobile robot and proposed a controller that can adjust the speed according to road surface geometry. The performance of the proposed method was verified via simulation using Unity.

Study of Half Car Model of Different Private Vehicles on Three Bumps Road

Speed bumps are constructed on the road to control the vehicle speed. While passing through the bumps, the vehicle dynamic behaviour is critical to ride comfort and it is challenging for researcher. The present study is on the performance of four different private vehicles with four different speeds (10kmph, 20kmph, 30kmph and 40kmph) on three speed bumps. A half car model is developed in Matlab/Simulink®. The weighted RMS accelerations of these vehicles are evaluated as per vehicle ride comfort ISO-2631-1-1997. Linear control strategies are implemented to the model to improve the ride comfort.

Energy harvesting optimization using 2D car suspension system actuated by a sawtooth speed bump

In this work, an optimal suspension system is proposed to reduce the oscillations/vibrations of the car's body and harvest some of the induced vibration energy. The usual shock absorbers are replaced with energy harvesters capable of not only absorbing vibrations for ride comfort but also regenerating electrical energy for onboard use. To investigate the efficiency of the proposed harvesters, the input to the vehicle wheels is assumed to come from a sawtooth-shaped speed bump or rumble speed strip. Also, given the coupling between the various degrees of freedom of the car (heave, pitch, etc.), a half-car model is adopted in the derivation of the equations of motion. To maximize the amount of energy harvested, the design parameters of the harvesters are obtained using the simulated annealing optimization technique with four objective functions. Many of the design parameters, including magnet size, coil turns, and coil layers, are adjusted during the optimization process. Constant and accelerated motions are considered in this study to maximize the generated electricity index and ride comfort efficiency. The simulation results showed that the optimized harvesters were able to regenerate a significant amount of energy while maintaining an acceptable ride comfort level.

Design, modeling, and simulation of a novel transducer for vibration energy recovery system of speed bump

Based on the designed vibration energy recovery system of speed bump, the structure and principle of a novel transducer are introduced in this paper, which is an important part of the system. AMEsim simulation software was used to study the characteristics of the transducer, and the feasibility of the transducer design was verified through modeling and analysis of the dual-cylinder transducer. The coupling model of vehicle speed bump and transducer was analyzed, the dynamic differential equation was listed, and the decoupling operation was carried out. On the basis of the above, Matlab/Simulink was used to establish the model simulation, and the time-domain responses of displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the vibration of the car body, wheel, and transducer in the coupling model system were analyzed. The control variable method was used to further explore the time-domain response of vehicle acceleration in the coupling system only when the vehicle speed changes or the transducer damping changes. Finally, the vibration energy recovery system of the speed bump was built, and the preliminary test proved that the transducer can realize its function.

Renewable energy generation using electromechanical speed bump

AbstractThe design of pollution-free energy recovery systems has become an important goal by researchers as renewable energy is an alternative to traditional energy that depends on fossil fuels. In this work, a multifunctional electromechanical speed bump was invented to be used on the streets to generate clean, sustainable energy by utilizing and investing the kinetic energy of vehicles passing on the roads. The current model was designed to perform three functions simultaneously.To measure the performance of the innovative speed bump system, a (simplified) prototype was made that simulates the work of the multifunctional bump. The results showed that the proposed initial speed bump model is a promising technology that can be applied as a clean, renewable energy source that can be easily applied in crowded streets.

Safety and environmental benefits of intelligent speed bumps

Speed bumps are a common speeding prevention measure used to protect vulnerable road users, i.e. pedestrians and cyclists, near crosswalks in urban areas. They are also used to reduce traffic volumes, prevent overtaking, and allow a change in driving routine. However, conventional speed bumps have certain shortcomings, such as reduced driving comfort for all road users, potential vehicle damage and associated repair costs, delays for emergency vehicles and public transport vehicles, longer travel times and congestion, difficulties with snow removal in winter, the formation of ruts and potholes before or after such obstacles, and an increase in fuel consumption, traffic noise, and emissions of harmful gasses during braking and accelerating. Consequently, in recent years, intensive work has been done to solve the above problems by developing so-called intelligent speed bumps. Although evaluating the performance of these intelligent speed bumps in real-world environments is not yet widely available in scientific research, numerous patents have been filed in this field over the years. This paper provides an overview of several intelligent speed bumps that have been developed in recent years and discusses the results of investigations conducted on one such speed bump that is already widely used in practice.

Suspension Control Strategies Using Switched Soft Actor-Critic Models for Real Roads

In this article, we propose learning and control strategies for a semiactive suspension system in a full car using soft actor-critic (SAC) models on real roads, where many road profiles with various power of disturbance exist (e.g., speed bumps and general roads). Therefore, a technique that enables deep reinforcement learning to cover different domains with largely different reward functions is proposed. This concept was first realized in a simulation environment. Our proposed switching learning system continuously identifies two different road disturbance profiles in real time such that the appropriately designed SAC model can be learned and applied accordingly. The results of the proposed switching SAC algorithm were compared against those of advanced and conventional benchmark suspension systems. Based on the results, the proposed algorithm showed smaller root-mean-square values of the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$z$</tex-math></inline-formula> -directional acceleration and pitch at the center of the body mass. Finally, we also presented our successfully implemented SAC training system in a real car on real roads. The trained SAC model outperforms conventional controllers reducing the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$z$</tex-math></inline-formula> -directional acceleration and pitch, similar to the simulation results, which is highly related to the riding comfort and vehicle maneuverability.

A translationally active ligand based on a [2]rotaxane molecular shuttle with a 2,2'-bipyridyl core.

A rigid H-shaped, [2]rotaxane molecular shuttle comprised of an axle containing two benzimidazole recognition sites and a central 2,2'-bipyridyl (bipy) group interlocked with a 24-crown-8 (24C8) wheel was synthesized using a threading followed by stoppering protocol. The central bipy chelating unit was shown to act as a speed bump that raised the barrier to shuttling for the [2]rotaxane. Coordination of a PtCl2 moiety to the bipy unit in a square planar geometry created an insurmountable steric barrier to shuttling. Addition of one equivalent of NaB(3,5-(CF3)2C6H3)4 removed one of the chloride ligands allowing for translation of the crown ether along the axle into the coordination sphere of the Pt(ii) centre but full shuttling of the crown ether could not be activated. In contrast, addition of Zn(ii) ions in a coordinating solvent (DMF) allowed shuttling to occur using a ligand exchange mechanism. DFT calculations showed this likely occurs via coordination of the 24C8 macrocycle to the Zn(ii) centre bound to the bipy chelate. This interplay of the rotaxane axle and wheel components is an example of a translationally active ligand that utilises the large amplitude displacement of a macrocycle along an axle in a molecular shuttle to access ligand coordination modes not possible with conventional ligand designs.

Speed bump and stock market quality: evidence from NYSE American

Speed bump and stock market quality: evidence from NYSE American

Hybrid speed bump-PV-battery-grid power generation in a smart grid environment

To meet the growing demand for clean energy and improved energy availability factor in South Africa, various solutions are being proposed from academia and industry. Therefore, in this study, a non-conventional method of generating clean energy was designed and constructed. The proposed system harnesses the kinetic energy of vehicles driving over speed bumps and converts it to electrical energy using a generator. This energy is supplemented with the energy generated from solar PV panels to provide a sustainable power supply for traffic and streetlights. The system is further designed to operate with a grid connection as a backup. An interface was further created to give real-time monitoring of electric power generation and consumption. The setup is also suitable for areas with limited/no access to electricity, and in the case of loadshedding. The results obtained during the testing of this prototype demonstrate the effectiveness of the system to provide a reliable source of electricity for street and traffic lights to ensure safety on the roads and avoidance of traffic congestion during loadshedding. The prototype is scalable to meet future power demands and feed into the grid in a smart grid environment.

On Optimal Control of a Multichamber Air Spring and Experimental Validation over Speed Bumps

This paper deals with a preview-based optimal control of a multichamber suspension over speed bumps. A multichamber suspension is an innovative type of road vehicle suspension whose spring is composed of multiple auxiliary air reservoirs connected to a main pneumatic chamber. A set of controllable valves regulate the airflow among the different chambers, allowing the modulation of the spring equivalent stiffness. Multichamber suspensions are the only existing architecture in the market capable of vertical stiffness regulation. The first goal of this paper is to find an optimal valve position sequence which minimizes the vertical acceleration over some known speed bump profiles, under the hypothesis of perfect road preview. This optimization is carried out in simulation considering a control-oriented model of the multichamber suspension. A sensitivity study is then performed considering different bump shapes and vehicle speeds. The second goal of this work is to apply and validate the control sequence on a real vehicle equipped with commercial multichamber suspensions. Experimental results successfully reported improvements in corner vertical acceleration up to 16% and chassis pitch rate up to 12% compared to the passive benchmark.

Safe Driving Enabled using IoT

Driving can be an enjoyable experience, but it can quickly turn dangerous when the roads are not properly maintained. Potholes, speed bumps, and objects on the road can all pose a risk to drivers, especially in poor weather conditions. Potholes, in particular, are a common problem caused by weather and poor maintenance, and they can lead to serious accidents. While automobile manufacturers do not provide features to detect potholes, a simple ultrasonic sensor can be a valuable tool for alerting drivers to their presence. The objective of this project is to use an ultrasonic sensor to detect potholes and alert drivers, particularly in risky weather conditions, to make driving safer. The importance of this project is underscored by the fact that potholes and objects left on the road have led to thousands of deaths in recent years.

Stability analysis of the food delivery robot with suspension damping structure

Aiming at the shock absorption and stability under complex terrain conditions, a six-wheeled food delivery robot with a suspension damping structure was designed. The food delivery robot is mainly composed of a take-out box, a chassis mobile structure and a suspension damping structure. The dynamic analysis of the suspension damping structure of the robot is carried out through the Lagrangian equation, and the offset of the wheels in different driving environments is obtained. Then, the zero-moment point method is used to analyze the stability of the food delivery robot in two non-horizontal movement environments of the left and right wheels and the front and rear wheels. Based on this, taking speed bumps and ramp terrain with different slopes as examples, the stability of the food delivery robot is analyzed by ADAMS simulation. The simulation and experiment results verify the rationality of the structure design of the food delivery robot with a suspension damping structure and the correctness of the theoretical analysis.

동적 장면에서의 차간 거리 보정을 위한 광학 흐름 기반 차량 자세 추정

Stable inter-vehicle distance estimations are required in dynamic scenes as they are essential for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and high-level autonomous driving. However, instantaneous changes in the pose of a vehicle in the dynamic scene may cause errors in the estimation of the inter-vehicle distance, which can lead to traffic accidents and also affect obstacle avoidance performance. In this study, the optical flow motion vector is histogrammed to extract a representative value, and the correlation between the representative value and inertial measurement unit (IMU) data is confirmed to verify the accuracy in vehicle pose estimation based on the optical flow motion vector. Then, an algorithm is proposed for improving the vehicle distance estimation accuracy in real-time ground compensation. Experiments have been conducted using an autonomous vehicle on the road with speed bumps, and the data from the IMU sensor installed in the vehicle and LiDAR detection results are used as the ground-truth data. The pose estimation with the proposed method shows an average error of 0.0029 rad, and the distance correction error can be reduced from 2.73 m (14.8%) to 0.86 m (4.6%), demonstrating the possibility of accurate real-time inter-vehicle distance correction.

Automatic Speed Bump (ASeB) to Reduce the Rate of Traffic Accident

The number of road traffic accidents is a complicated problem that has never been separated from the government's attention since the national development began to be implemented, especially in the transportation sector. From the three categories of road, sea, air, and rail traffic, road traffic does have the greatest risk of accident rates compared to others. In this case, it needs the development system, including the manufacture of designing Automatic Speed Bump known as an ASeB prototype that can detect the speed of the vehicles which pass beyond the maximum speed limits. Road users are expected to provide a psychological effect for the road users to reduce their vehicles' speed. This tool can detect vehicle speeds using ultrasonic sensors and directly give an announcement or warning through sound and running text. Subsequently, it runs the automatic speed bump as the vehicle's speed reducer. By using this system, it is expected that road users can reduce the speed of their vehicles when passing on the road, significantly reducing the number of traffic accidents.

Regulatory Artifacts: Prescribing, Constituting, Steering

Generally, when thinking of artifacts, one imagines “technical artifacts”. Technical artifacts are those artifacts that perform a mere causal function. Their purpose is to instrumentally help and support an action, not to change behaviour. However, technical artifacts do not exhaust the set of artifacts. Alongside technical artifacts there are also artifacts that we can call “cognitive artifacts”. Cognitive artifacts are all those artifacts that operate upon information in order to improve human cognitive performances. Artifacts of a further, different kind are what we may call “regulatory artifacts”; that is, material artifacts devised and made to regulate behaviour. Consider a roundabout, a traffic light or a speed bump. These artifacts do not make us stronger, faster, or more intelligent. They are placed on the road surface to regulate traffic. This article investigates artifacts of this third kind and, especially, the functions that they perform.

Technical electrogenerating tools for road facilities: systematics and design specifics

BACKGROUND: Currently the Russian Federation Government has a strong focus to roads safety. This is due to the national project Safe High-Quality Roads. One of tools of pedestrian safety in an urban are road bumps. They are need for drivers speed slow.&#x0D; Contrarily world scientists create alternative sources of electrical energy. It led to tools type as technical electrogenerating devices.&#x0D; Whereas technical electrogenerating tools have big amount of developments by russian and world scientists. But in modern scientific literature there is no systematic concept about this tools type.&#x0D; AIMS: The paper purpose is knowledge summary about technical electrogenerating tools and develop their classification.&#x0D; METHODS: Energy of a moving car is accumulated and converted into electrical energy by devices type. Concept of technical electrogenerating tools is based on convertion of energy pulse of speed bump into electrical energy at the moment of car runover. This energy can be used for electricity supply of road infrastructure (crosswalk lighting, road sign ligtht, powering traffic lights).&#x0D; RESULTS: The basic classification feature of these tools is device type converting moving car energy into electrical energy: piezoelectric, hydraulic, electromechanical. In turn technical electrogenerating tools with electromechanical converter are classified by criteria: amount of motor, type of transmission mechanism, design of pressing platform and type of generator.&#x0D; CONCLUSIONS: The developed classification provides to systematize contributions of russian and world scientists designing devices of technical electrogenerating tools.