Road restraint systems monitoring with stereoscopic dip-technique

Road restraint systems (RRS) are used to protect vehicle occupants from dangerous roadside elements such as rigid obstacles, slopes, utility poles, etc. The crashes on a road restraint system damage its structure and, therefore, the functional behavioral; for this reason is required monitoring the RRS into their operational conditions. The research addresses the problem of the measurement of safety barrier (SB) deformations by means digital image processing technique (DIP). This technique is founded on the analysis of high resolution photos/videos, obtained by means of 3D camera installed into a data vehicle. The DIP technique has been used for evaluating the longitudinal safety barriers deformations. A case study concerning N2 W-beam guardrails installed along a rural road in Italy was examined. The procedure has shown that the DIP technique can be used with the aim to monitoring guardrails and, therefore, to identify the cases in which damaged SB must be repaired or replaced.