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EP0215948A1 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Vehicle for evaluating properties of road surfaces

Assignee: Airport Facilities Co Ltd
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Filing: 1985-06-05
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2005-06-05
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Abstract

Abstract A vehicle for evaluating the properties of road surfaces, which is provided with a rut-evaluating means, a crack-evaluating means and a longitudinal section-evaluating means on predetermined portions thereof. The rut-evaluating means, crack-evaluating means and longitudinal section-evaluating means are arranged so that the measuring intervals of these means can be controlled on the basis of a signal from a single speedometer serving also as a range finder. Therefore, signals representative of a matched values of these three kinds of properties of a road surface can be outputted. Even if there is a relative speed between the property- evaluating system (the property evaluating vehicle) and the object system (road surface), values of properties of the object road surface can be obtained reliably at all times irrespective of the relative speed. Accordingly, reliable data on the properties of a road surface can be obtained with great accuracy. This enables the provision of a vehicle for evaluating the properties of road surfaces, so as to cope with an increase in the volume of traffic and speed of vehicles.

Inventors

  • 👤 Shoutaro Kokusai Kogyo Co. Ltd. KATO
  • 👤 Tatsuhide Kokusai Kogyo Co. Ltd. NAKANE
  • 👤 Tetsuo Kokusai Kogyo Co. Ltd. OGIWARA

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-02 22:08
CPC Classifications
E; E01; E01C; E01C23/00; E01C23/01; G; G01; G01B; G01B11/00; G01B11/24; G01B11/25

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 5
Claim 1
Independent Claim 309 words
1) A vehicle for evaluating the properties of road surfaces, characterized in that rut-evaluating means and crack-evaluating means are provided at rear and front portions of a vehicle, respectively, said rut-evaluating means having a CCD camera, a matrix - charge distribution being formed on a light-receiving surface thereof by incident light, and a laser oscillator for emitting a laser fan beam in a direction defining a predetermined angle with respect to an optical axis of said camera, said crack-evaluating means having a film camera provided such that said film camera can sense in a direction perpendicular to the road surface, and a projector for irradiating light in a direction at a predetermined angle with respect to an optical axis of said film camera, longitudinal section profile evaluating means, having three optical level meters which are mounted at equal intervals on a vehicle base parallel to the road surface so as to be in series in the travel direction of the vehicle, is arranged on a lower side of said vehicle, said rut-, crack-, and longitudinal section profile evaluating means can perform evaluation based on a signal from a single speedometer/range finder, at least said rut-evaluating means is capable of extracting a cross-section profile exhibiting a peak value of an exposure in units of scanning lines by scanning the matrix charge distribution, obtained by integration exposure and sensing the signal from said speedometer/range finder for a predetermined period, in a three-dimensional direction, said three level meters used by said longitudinal section profile evaluating means are arranged to be separate from each other at equal intervals to correspond to a measuring pitch (1 0 ) interval, and a set of three serial measurement data is fetched at every measuring pitch (ℓ 0 ) to calculate a longitudinal section profile by using a longitudinal section three-dimensional amount calculated from the measurement data.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 309 words
1) A vehicle for evaluating the properties of road surfaces, characterized in that rut-evaluating means and crack-evaluating means are provided at rear and front portions of a vehicle, respectively, said rut-evaluating means having a CCD camera, a matrix - charge distribution being formed on a light-receiving surface thereof by incident light, and a laser oscillator for emitting a laser fan beam in a direction defining a predetermined angle with respect to an optical axis of said camera, said crack-evaluating means having a film camera provided such that said film camera can sense in a direction perpendicular to the road surface, and a projector for irradiating light in a direction at a predetermined angle with respect to an optical axis of said film camera, longitudinal section profile evaluating means, having three optical level meters which are mounted at equal intervals on a vehicle base parallel to the road surface so as to be in series in the travel direction of the vehicle, is arranged on a lower side of said vehicle, said rut-, crack-, and longitudinal section profile evaluating means can perform evaluation based on a signal from a single speedometer/range finder, at least said rut-evaluating means is capable of extracting a cross-section profile exhibiting a peak value of an exposure in units of scanning lines by scanning the matrix charge distribution, obtained by integration exposure and sensing the signal from said speedometer/range finder for a predetermined period, in a three-dimensional direction, said three level meters used by said longitudinal section profile evaluating means are arranged to be separate from each other at equal intervals to correspond to a measuring pitch (1 0 ) interval, and a set of three serial measurement data is fetched at every measuring pitch (ℓ 0 ) to calculate a longitudinal section profile by using a longitudinal section three-dimensional amount calculated from the measurement data.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 30 words
2) A vehicle according to claim 1, wherein an optical filter of the same color as a light-shielding light source is mounted on the light-receiving surface of said CCD camera.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 40 words
3) A vehicle according to claim 1, wherein a road surface radiation spot diameter of said optical level meters is set to be a predetermined value larger than at least the diameter of a pinhole appearing on the road surface.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 182 words
4) A vehicle according to claim 1, wherein, as means for processing the longitudinal section profile, a line (a'-c') connecting a pair of level meters constituting said three level meters and a line (a.-c.) connecting ground points immediately under said pair of level meters are substantially parallel to each other, distances to the road surfaces at three points remote from each other at a measuring pitch (ℓ 0 ) are measured simultaneously sequentially for each measuring pitch (ℓ 0 ), a temporary road surface level (Y i ) and a temporary horizontal distance (X.) at each measuring point having, as temporary coordinates, an evaluation start point (a i ) and a first measuring point (b.) of a line connecting the points (a.) and (b i ), are obtained, and the temporary coordinates are converted into standard coordinates from the temporary road surface level (Y i ) and the temporary horizontal distance (X i ) and altitudes at two given points among the measuring points, thereby obtaining a road surface height (H.) and a horizontal distance (D i ) at each measurement point.

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