Development of a 3D road profile measuring system for unpaved road severity analysis

The vibration environment essentially companied by vehicle operation on the ground is determined by shapes of road surface, which is called profile. In general, the profile of unpaved roads is an important issue in the reliability of endurance test for military vehicles. For measuring the unpaved road profile and severity, it is necessary to develop a road profile measurement system, which is called a profilometer. Therefore, this paper focuses on developing a 3D profile measuring system. The developed 3D profilometer system consists of a data processing computer, a power unit, a vehicle measurement unit, and sensors (encoder, IMU, laser scanner, and so on). This paper represents the configuration of the measurement system, measurement principle, and performance verification for the unpaved road used at Changwon Proving Ground, Korea.