Development of a Cost-Effective Wireless Vibration Weigh-In-Motion System to Estimate Axle Weights of Trucks

Truck weight data plays an important role in weight enforcement and pavement condition assessment. This data is primarily obtained through weigh stations and Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) stations which are currently very expensive to install and maintain. This article presents results of the implementation of an inexpensive wireless sensor-based vibration WIM system. The proposed wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of acceleration sensors that report pavement vibration; vehicle detection sensors that report a vehicle's arrival and departure times; and an access point (AP) that synchronizes all the sensors and records the sensor data. The article also describes a new method for speed compensation, an energy-efficient algorithm (adaptive sampling method) to increase battery life, and a new modeling procedure to estimate gross vehicle weights. The system deployed near a conventional WIM system on I-80W in Pinole, CA passed the accuracy standards for WIM systems and outperformed a nearby commercial WIM station, based on conventional technology.