SBIR Phase I: WeighCam: A Non-invasive Screening Tool to Detect Overweight Trucks on Roads in Real Time

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to decrease the number of overweight trucks on the roads by developing a financially and technically practical screening tool to detect overweight vehicles on most roads in real-time. Overweight commercial vehicles are a significant cause of the nation's crumbling roads and bridges besides being a prime threat to transportation safety. The proposed project addresses the issue of effectively detecting overweight trucks on roads using real-time video-images while neither interfering with the traffic flow nor integrity the pavement. The proprietary system, WeighCam system, includes proprietary electro-optical system, algorithms, and system design. It will be easy to operate and robust in the sense that it will reliably work in most ambient environmental conditions such as ambient luminosity changes, etc. The purpose of this research will be to validate the basics of the system and calibrate the measurements using known weights to deduce the system limitations and to establish the feature sets of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), a necessary step to start the manufacture of a commercial prototype. The final prototype will be a practical, autonomous, quick to install, and continuously operating continuous system sending data in real time. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.