Study of road surface characteristics in frequency domain using micro-optical 3-D camera

A number of methods are used to assess the road surface characteristics, in terms of its roughness, skid resistance, texture etc. In the present work, three-dimensional (3-D) road profile data of asphalt pavements, captured by a micro-optical 3-D measuring device (covering an area of about 26 mm × 20 mm), is used to study the road surface characteristics. Analysis is performed in frequency domain to extract information on both microtexture and macrotexture from the same source data collected by the equipment. The surface parameters derived from 3-D measurement are compared with conventional parameters gathered by standard methods namely, sand patch, pendulum tester, and sideway force coefficient measurement. The proposed surface parameters show a good correspondence with the results obtained by the conventional methods. Thus, the method presented in the paper seems to have a potential for fast and automated evaluation of functional characteristics of pavement surface.