Alternative data collection methods for asset management and safety
Date
2023
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The following research explores how transportation engineering groups could implement inexpensive, user-friendly technology for asset management and safety. The researchers completed two projects for the thesis. The first project attempted to use modern smartphone sensors to measure the slopes of sidewalks and ramps. Previous research has used smartphone sensors for tracking vehicles, but smartphone sensors have never been used to measure small angular displacements. A smartphone was mounted to a wheelchair and inclinometer data was collected. Acceleration data from the iPhone was then converted to displacement using MATLAB. Wheelchair vibration on rough surfaces and issues with a GPS device close to buildings led to inaccurate results. The research also attempted to use the smartphone sensors to detect non-compliant surface discontinuities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA. A method was found that could relatively predict if an obstacle was deemed non-compliant but location data was still an issue. ☐ The second thesis project focused on finding a way to crowdsource near-miss accident data using ArcGIS. For vehicle accidents, a near-miss could be considered one that resulted in property damage only with no injuries to occupants. There is no similar analogy for bicycles and pedestrians. Identifying locations where these near-misses are reported could prevent injury or fatality crashes. An application was developed to collect near-miss reports through ArcGIS Online and their Crowdsource Reporter. The application was tested and is considered ready to deploy.
Description
Keywords
Transportation engineering, Tracking vehicles, Smartphone sensors, GPS device, Fatality crashes