Road weather information systems (RWIS) are used by road services for traffic management and decision-making regarding preventive road treatment. RWIS systems obtain data on road conditions and forecasting data from various sources, including road weather stations (RWS). In the event of a sensor failure at an RWS, a gap in data collection occurs, which affects the accuracy of road condition forecasts.
As part of this thesis, a prototype temporary embedded road weather sensor (RWS) was developed to measure road temperature at three depths (0 cm, 5 cm, and 30 cm). The prototype utilizes an ESP32 development board, DS18B20 digital temperature sensors, and transmits data wirelessly to a receiving ESP32 using the ESP-NOW protocol. The receiving ESP32 then forwards the data to a Raspberry Pi 4 for local storage.
The results of the comparison between the prototype RWS and the reference Lufft IRS31Pro- UMB sensor showed that the prototype provides sufficient measurement accuracy at depths of 5 cm and 30 cm, meeting the CVIS maintenance requirements of ±0.5 °C compared to the reference value of the IRS31Pro-UMB sensor. The energy consumption analysis confirmed that the prototype, with the selected batteries, can operate for at least 6 days.
The prototype allows for easy installation and transmits data wirelessly, making it suitable as a temporary solution in the event of a failure of existing RWS stations.
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