Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
2,421,167
result(s) for
"roads"
Sort by:
Road surface detection and differentiation considering surface damages
A challenge still to be overcome in the field of visual perception for vehicle and robotic navigation on heavily damaged and unpaved roads is the task of reliable path and obstacle detection. The vast majority of the researches have scenario roads in good condition, from developed countries. These works cope with few situations of variation on the road surface and even fewer situations presenting surface damages. In this paper we present an approach for road detection considering variation in surface types, identifying paved and unpaved surfaces and also detecting damage and other information on other road surfaces that may be relevant to driving safety. Our approach makes use of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to perform semantic segmentation, we use the U-NET architecture with ResNet34, in addition we use the technique known as Transfer Learning, where we first train a CNN model without using weights in the classes as a basis for a second CNN model where we use weights for each class. We also present a new Ground Truth with image segmentation, used in our approach and that allowed us to evaluate our results. Our results show that it is possible to use passive vision for these purposes, even using images captured with low cost cameras.
Journal Article
A Clouded Leopard in the Middle of the Road
A Clouded Leopard in the Middle of the
Road is an eye-opening introduction to the
ecological impacts of roads. Drawing on over ten years of
active engagement in the field of road ecology, Darryl Jones sheds
light on the challenges roads pose to wildlife-and the solutions
taken to address them.
One of the most ubiquitous indicators of human activity, roads
typically promise development and prosperity. Yet they carry with
them the threat of disruption to both human and animal lives. Jones
surveys the myriad, innovative ways stakeholders across the world
have sought to reduce animal-vehicle collisions and minimize
road-crossing risks for wildlife, including efforts undertaken at
the famed fauna overpasses of Banff National Park, the Singapore
Eco-Link, \"tunnels of love\" in the Australian Alps, and others.
Along the way, he acquaints readers with concepts and research in
road ecology, describing the field's origins and future directions.
Engaging and accessible, A Clouded Leopard in the Middle of the
Road brings to the foreground an often-overlooked facet of
humanity's footprint on earth.
eBook
Ancient road networks and settlement hierarchies in the New World
This 1991 volume describes past studies of prehispanic roads in the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central and South America, paying special attention to their significance for economic and political organization, as well as regional communication.
Book
Road avoidance responses determine the impact of heterogeneous road networks at a regional scale
Barrier effect is a road‐related impact affecting several animal populations. It can be caused by behavioural responses towards roads (surface and/or gap avoidance), associated emissions (traffic‐emissions avoidance) and/or circulating vehicles (vehicle avoidance). Most studies so far have described road‐effect zones along major roads, without determining the actual factor inducing the behavioural response. The purpose of the present study was to assess the factors potentially causing road‐effect zones in a heterogeneous road network (with variations in road width, road surface and traffic volume) and eventually to estimate the reduction of habitat quality imposed by roads within a protected area (Doñana Biosphere Reserve, Spain). As model species, we used two ungulates, red deer Cervus elaphus and wild boar Sus scrofa. We surveyed the presence of both species along 200‐m transects. All transects started and were perpendicular to reference roads (those with a traffic volume above 10 cars per day), often intersecting unpaved minor roads with virtually no traffic. The presence probability of both species was mainly affected by the distance to the nearest road (in most cases unpaved roads without traffic), but also by the proximity to reference roads. Red deer presence was also affected by the traffic volume of the nearest reference road. At a regional scale, the overall road network within the protected area imposes a reduction in presence probability of 40% for red deer and 55% for wild boar. A road network optimization, decommissioning unused and unpaved roads, would re‐establish almost entirely the potential habitat quality (91% for both species). Synthesis and applications. We found that both study species avoided roads regardless of their surface or traffic volume, suggesting a response due to gap avoidance which may be based on the association between linear infrastructures and the possibility of vehicles occurring along them. The overall behavioural response can substantially decrease habitat quality over large scales, including the conservation value of protected areas. For this reason, we recommend road network optimization by road decommissioning to mitigate the impact of roads at a regional scale, with potential positive effects at ecosystem level.
Journal Article
Application of Combining YOLO Models and 3D GPR Images in Road Detection and Maintenance
Improving the detection efficiency and maintenance benefits is one of the greatest challenges in road testing and maintenance. To address this problem, this paper presents a method for combining the you only look once (YOLO) series with 3D ground-penetrating radar (GPR) images to recognize the internal defects in asphalt pavement and compares the effectiveness of traditional detection and GPR detection by evaluating the maintenance benefits. First, traditional detection is conducted to survey and summarize the surface conditions of tested roads, which are missing the internal information. Therefore, GPR detection is implemented to acquire the images of concealed defects. Then, the YOLOv5 model with the most even performance of the six selected models is applied to achieve the rapid identification of road defects. Finally, the benefits evaluation of maintenance programs based on these two detection methods is conducted from economic and environmental perspectives. The results demonstrate that the economic scores are improved and the maintenance cost is reduced by $49,398/km based on GPR detection; the energy consumption and carbon emissions are reduced by 792,106 MJ/km (16.94%) and 56,289 kg/km (16.91%), respectively, all of which indicates the effectiveness of 3D GPR in pavement detection and maintenance.
Journal Article
Land travel and communications in Tudor and Stuart England : achieving a joined-up realm
Focusing on the period 1500-1700 this book documents the growth in road travel across all sections of society. It also includes the changes by which correspondence was conveyed throughout England and beyond.
Book
When road-kill hotspots do not indicate the best sites for road-kill mitigation
1. The effectiveness of measures installed to mitigate wildlife road-kill depends on their placement along the road. Road-kill hotspots are frequently used to identify priority locations for mitigation measures. However, in situations where previous road mortality has reduced population size, road-kill hotspots may not indicate the best sites for mitigation. 2. The purpose of this study was to identify circumstances in which road-kill hotspots are not appropriate indicators for the selection of the best road-kill mitigation sites. We predicted that: (i) road-kill hotspots can move in time from high-traffic road segments to low-traffic segments, due to population depression near the high-traffic segment caused by road mortality; (ii) this shift will occur earlier for more mobile species because they should interact more often with the road; (iii) this shift can occur even if the low-traffic segment runs through lower quality habitat than the high-traffic segment. To test these predictions, we simulated population size and road-kill over time for two populations, one exposed to a road segment with high traffic and the other to a road segment with low traffic. 3. Our simulation results supported Predictions 1 and 3, while Prediction 2 was not supported. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our results indicate that, for new roads, road-kill hotspots can be useful to indicate appropriate sites for mitigation. On older roads, road-kill hotspots may not indicate the best sites for road mitigation due to population depression caused by road mortality. Direct measures of the road impact on the population, such as per capita mortality, are better indicators of appropriate mitigation sites than road-kill hotspots.
Journal Article