Road Surface Classification Using Automotive Ultrasonic Sensor

This work examines the method of road surface classification, based on the analysis of backscattered ultrasonic signals. The novelty of our research is the extraction of signal features for separate swathes of illuminated surface (segmentation) and the use of a wide range of statistical methods in real on-road and off-road driving conditions. The errors caused by the influence of environmental conditions and the vehicle movement were analysed, and ways to reduce them were suggested. The results demonstrate the feasibility of reliable surface classification using the proposed methodology.