Two low-cost methods of estimating the road surface condition are presented in the paper, the first one
based on the use of accelerometers and the other on the analysis of images acquired from cameras installed
in a vehicle. In the first method, miniature positioning and accelerometer sensors are used for evaluation of
the road surface roughness. The device designed for installation in vehicles is composed of a GPS receiver
and a multi-axis accelerometer. The measurement data were collected from recorded ride sessions taken
place on diversified road surface roughness conditions and at varied vehicle speeds on each of examined
road sections. The data were gathered for various vehicle body types and afterwards successful attempts
were made in constructing the road surface classification employing the created algorithm. In turn, in the
video method, a set of algorithms processing images from a depth camera and RGB cameras were created.
A representative sample of the material to be analysed was obtained and a neural network model for classification
of road defects was trained. The research has shown high effectiveness of applying the digital image
processing to rejection of images of undamaged surface, exceeding 80%. Average effectiveness of identification
of road defects amounted to 70%. The paper presents the methods of collecting and processing the
data related to surface damage as well as the results of analyses and conclusions.
The paper includes a summary of long-time research conducted by a research team in the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Silesian University of Technology. The research work has principally been related to selected problems in the field of analysis and synthesis of systems aimed at symmetrisation and improvement of some power quality parameters. This paper constitutes the second part of the report on the research. It has been devoted to three-phase system symmetrisation as well as effective elimination of higher harmonics and substantial improvement of power quality by means of hybrid active power filters.
The paper includes a summary and a background of long-time research conducted by a research team in the Institute of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at SilesianUniversity of Technology. The researchwork has principally been related to selected problems in the field of analysis and synthesis of systems aimed at symmetrisation and improvement of some power quality parameters. This paper constitutes a first part of the report on the research. It has been devoted to effective elimination of higher harmonics and reactive power compensation by means of parallel active power filters. The other problem discussed in this paper is related to this issue and it is very important from the economic point of view; it addresses optimal sizing and placement of active power filters in investigated power networks.