How road surfaces reflect light in space is a physical characteristic that plays a key role in the design of road lighting installations: by European Standards the average luminance is the target quantity to assure the required safety conditions of the motorized road traffic. Lighting systems are designed (luminous flux installed per kilometre) to comply with the above requirement, starting from reference values of road surfaces reflection published in an old scientific document. These data are obsolete and not representative of current road surfaces, but they are still used to design current LED lighting systems. European Community funded a SURFACE project to provide to EU standard organization new traceable reference data, representative of current road surfaces used in EU. The paper presents the data collections and the impact on road lighting of using available old reference data versus SURFACE collected data of current road surfaces. Results highlight advantages in using bright pavements as well the need for introducing systems for flux control in road lighting installation to compensate for the discrepancies between current reference data and actual road surface data.
The knowledge of the luminance coefficient q or of the reduced luminance coefficient r of road surface is an unavoidable requirement for designing road lighting installations able to assure adequate road luminance for visual conditions, energy consumption and traffic safety according to standard requirements. Unfortunately q available data refers to measurements made during the seventies with no traceability or measurement uncertainty. In the last 40 years the road surfaces pavements evolved as well the road lighting sources and luminaires. EMPIR project SURFACE will provide validated, optimised and reliable geometrical conditions for the measurement of q as well as reference data representative of current road pavements and future needs, as support of the European Standardisation process, CIE and European Metrology infrastructure.
SP has experience in the field of fiberoptic communication and expertise in research in the field. Also, SP has expertise in the high-voltage field and there is currently a large interest in developing the high-voltage network in order to accommodate new small producers of electric power (wind mills, solar power, etc.) In this report we describe efforts to find areas of interest to develop fiberoptic sensors for offshore monitoring of high-voltage equipment. A large number of research papers and review articles have been collected and reviewed in order to investigate what possibilities are at hand for SP to provide support for development of new or existing fiberoptic sensor technologies.
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving (AD) vehicles rely heavily on optical sensors. Extensive testing of optical sensors is required and typically performed at test tracks like AstaZero. Soft surrogate targets are used for safety reasons, but the optical characteristics of surrogate targets may differ considerably from that of real vehicles. During tests the quality of the soft surrogate targets deteriorates due to repeated impacts and reassembly of the targets, and there is a need for methods to secure the quality of the soft surrogate targets over time.
RISE has conducted a project together with Volvo Cars and Veoneer to develop and validate accurate and repeatable measurement methods of the optical characteristics of 3D soft car targets. The goal is to support international standardisation (ISO) with standard methods enabling future verification and calibration of optical characteristics of active safety 3D soft car targets.
The poster presents results from optical measurements on soft car targets and real cars, performed in the project. One target was subjected to 100 rear-end collisions during which the reflectivity was measured.
This paper reports on results from a study of characteristics for 3D soft surrogate vehicle targets. Such targets are used extensively for testing and verification of optical sensor systems for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and Automated Driving. However, the influence of wear-and-tear on the vehicle target is not well known. Consequently, no clear requirement exists on how many collisions a soft target can be exposed to before it no longer performs well.
Important characteristics for optical sensor systems are surface reflectance in the relevant wavelength range and geometry of the soft target. We report on measurements of spectral reflectivity and geometry performed before, during and after an accelerated ageing campaign involving 100 rear-end collisions at 50 km/h. The reflectivity was found to change very little while the geometry was strongly affected.
Specifications concerning road lighting and photometry of road surfaces were established more than 50 years ago. Road lighting design and road marking visibility were developed for vehicle driving. The observation distance defined by standards corresponds to interurban applications; however, within Europe these areas do not tend to be lit. The objective of the SURFACE project is to propose new geometries for the photometric characterisation of pavements, both adapted to different urban travel modes and new lighting technologies. This article reviews the available guidelines, standards, measuring devices and literature regarding geometries and road lighting applications, and presents the project SURFACE analysis and proposal. The SURFACE consortium recommends adding several new angles for different driving conditions and road users; 2.29° for urban environments and consistency with road marking standard, and 1° for extra-urban environment and consistency with previous geometries. A 5° angle, corresponding to 17-m viewing distance, could be an interesting compromise, suitable for urban driving at low speed, cycling and for scooters. The angles of 10° and 20° are under consideration for describing the boundary between diffuse and specular behaviour.
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving (AD)vehicles rely on a variety of sensors and among them optical sensors. Extensivetesting of functions using optical sensors is required and typically performedat proving grounds like AstaZero. Soft surrogate targets are used for safetyreasons but the optical and geometrical characteristics of soft car targets maydiffer considerably from that of real vehicles. During tests the quality of thesoft car targets deteriorates due to repeated impacts and reassembly of thetargets, and there is a need of methods for securing the quality of the softcar targets over time. One of the main goals of the HiFi Visual Target project isto develop and validate accurate and repeatable measurement methods of theoptical and geometric characteristics of soft car targets.