Parasitic monitoring of road constructions: setting up and implementing a new system for pavement-tyre friction

Tyre-pavement friction influences transport safety, particularly in autonomous vehicles (AVs), where real-time friction estimation impacts critical decisions (e.g., stopping, changing lanes, and deceleration rate). Despite this, there is a lack of methods to have low cost and continuous monitoring. Consequently, this study proposes a novel system to continuously provide on-board microprocessors with updated estimates of tyre-pavement friction as a function of pavement, tyre, meteorological, and driving conditions. To this end, the following main tasks were carried out: 1) In task 1, the problem was modelled, and high-level equations to satisfy were set up for both AVs and human-driven vehicles (HDVs). 2) In task 2, a framework was set up to solve friction-related issues considering critical scenarios involving unconnected vehicles. 3) In task 3, a solution to continuously estimate tyre-pavement friction for AVs and HDVs was set up, and the consequences for connected and cooperative vehicles were analysed and modelled. 4) In task 4, the following conclusions were derived: A) The system herein set up and implemented has outstanding characteristics in terms of small cost. B) It allows for quasi-continuous monitoring of pavement friction, and both long-term and short-term changes can be detected. C) Both points are crucial due to the limitations of common friction monitoring systems in achieving high sampling frequencies. Future research will focus on increasing the number of sets of braking manoeuvres and on the optimisation of the hardware and software of the system to add to the existing onboard system.