VehSense: Slippery Road Detection Using Smartphones

TL;DR

VehSense is a real-time system that detects slippery road conditions by analyzing smartphone inertial sensors and vehicle wheel speed data to identify skidding events without proprietary vehicle information.

Contribution

This paper introduces VehSense, a novel system that detects slippery roads using smartphones and OBD-II data, avoiding the need for proprietary vehicle sensors.

Findings

Effective detection of skidding on snow-covered roads

Compatible with most passenger vehicles

Real-time monitoring capability

Abstract

This paper investigates a new application of vehicular sensing: detecting and reporting the slippery road conditions. We describe a system and associated algorithm to monitor vehicle skidding events using smartphones and OBD-II (On board Diagnostics) adaptors. This system, which we call the VehSense, gathers data from smartphone inertial sensors and vehicle wheel speed sensors, and processes the data to monitor slippery road conditions in real-time. Specifically, two speed readings are collected: 1) ground speed, which is estimated by vehicle acceleration and rotation, and 2) wheel speed, which is retrieved from the OBD-II interface. The mismatch between these two speeds is used to infer a skidding event. Without tapping into vehicle manufactures' proprietary data (e.g., antilock braking system), VehSense is compatible with most of the passenger vehicles, and thus can be easily deployed. We evaluate our system on snow-covered roads at Buffalo, and show that it can detect vehicle skidding effectively.