Background – why did the project begin. Why is It relevant?
In the project E39 Kristiansand west - Mandal east, AF Gruppen is building a 19 km new motorway for Nye Veier. As a road construction client, Nye Veier funds the development of new technologies through additional values in the Best Value Procurement contract. As one of several innovation initiatives, AF Gruppen has commissioned the development of a system for prediction and real-time measurement of winter road surface conditions.
What problem will be solved? How will this project impact industry/society?
The aim of the project with SINTEF is to develop, implement and validate technology to both monitor actual winter road surface conditions and to predict how they will evolve in the future and thus provide safe driving conditions.
What will SINTEF do – how do we contribute to the solution/research?
SINTEF develops
- an optical system based on a miniature MEMS spectrometer developed at SINTEF to be mounted on e.g. light poles for monitoring winter road surface conditions. The detection principle relies on sending light to the road and detecting spectrally the light reflected towards the detector
- a machine learning model using friction, weather data and optical data to identify road surfaces conditions (e.g. ice, snow, slush, wet and dry) and predict how they will develop in the future.