Some aspects of road sweeping vehicle automation

This paper reports on work being undertaken to enhance the performance and safety of road sweeping vehicles, including a forward looking debris detection system alongside research into brushes and the brushing process. Vision processing techniques are used to identify various road surfaces and debris. A continuous flow of data is provided by laser striping building up a 3D profile of the road ahead. Only when the scene cannot be fully identified with sizes and shapes alone, other more advanced image processing techniques are applied. A brush rig was constructed to test different brush types used on road sweeping vehicles. An extensive range of practical tests were undertaken on a variety of contact surfaces. Analysis of the results shows that the common brush types currently on the market have very different characteristics depending on the orientation of their tines.