Information Sharing Of Road Friction Levels Estimated From Probe Vehicles

This paper describes a driver assistance system that is based on information about road friction levels (including slipperiness) obtained from probe vehicles by using rotational information from the wheels. Probe vehicle information systems collect and share valuable information from vehicles via certain information infrastructure. The estimation to determine the road friction is based on the characteristics of the tire μ-s curve. Information about the road friction levels is transmitted to the traffic management center by the Internet. The authors report on a case study that confirmed that this vital information could be gathered from probe vehicles; the test course consisted of slippery tiles of some kinds and general pavement road. Connecting these probe vehicles to the Internet allows not only data access, but also provides various environmental information generated by the embedded sensors to be shared through the Internet for global and real-time information. The authors conclude by outlining recommendations for future research, including the use of vehicle-to-vehicle communication regarding road conditions.