Desenvolvimento de um simulador de strip-sensor para sistema de pesagem de veículos em movimento

Abstract

A Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) system represents an opportunity for efficient highway monitoring aimed at identifying overweight vehicles-one of the main causes of pavement deterioration and roadway accidents involving heavy-duty vehicles, since excessive loading alters vehicle dynamic characteristics. For the direct use of a WIM system in highway enforcement, both the gross vehicle weight and the axle loads must be accurate and reliable. Achieving such performance is challenging, particularly due to the dynamic behavior of vehicles at high speeds. This work presents the development of a simulation interface for vehicles in motion. The digital-to-analog converter (DAC) of a microcontroller is employed to reproduce the signal of a load cell over which a heavy vehicle has passed. This signal is processed by a conditioning circuit and injected into the scale interface, thereby simulating the passage of a vehicle over its sensors; in other words, the simulator emulates the behavior of a load cell. The scale's software performs the detection of the simulated vehicles, enabling validation of the WIM simulator's functionality. The results obtained demonstrate good reproducibility of the measured parameters, thus validating the operation of the proposed system.