The technology involves operation of a self-driving truck or other cargo vehicle when it is being inspected at a weigh station. This may include determining whether a weigh station is open for inspection. Once at the weigh station, the vehicle may follow instructions of an inspection officer or autonomous inspection system. The vehicle may perform predefined actions or operations so that various vehicle systems and safety issues can be evaluated, such as the brakes, lights, tires, connections between the tractor and trailer, exposed fuel tanks, leaks, etc. A visual inspection may be performed to ensure the load is secured, vehicle and cargo documents meet certain criteria, and the carrier's safety record meets any requirements. In addition, the weigh station itself may be operated in a partly or fully autonomous mode when dealing with autonomous and manually driven vehicles.

A method for determining the weight G of a vehicle (1) while the vehicle is travelling on a section (3) of road (4) uses at least one weigh-in-motion (WIM) sensor (5) that is narrower than the length of the footprint of a wheel in the direction of vehicle travel. When the vehicle (1) travels along this section (3) of road (4) both the wheel loads F.sub.i(t) of all the wheels (2) or twin wheels i, and the speed v.sub.i(t) of the vehicle (1) during the entire passing are acquired as time functions, and during evaluation of the data for determining the weight G the speeds v.sub.i(t) and their change over time are used as weighting of the simultaneously determined wheel loads F.sub.i(t).

Various applications for use of mass estimations of a vehicle, including to control operation of the vehicle, sharing the mass estimation with other vehicles and/or a Network Operations Center (NOC), organizing vehicles operating in a platoon and/or partially controlling the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a platoon based on the relative mass estimations between the platooning vehicles. When vehicles are operating in a platoon, the relative mass between a lead and a following vehicle may be used to scale torque and/or brake commands generated by the lead vehicle and sent to the following vehicle.

A monitoring system includes an axle weight measurer and a state estimator. The axle weight measurer detects a surface displacement of a road from a first captured image obtained by imaging the road when a vehicle passes at a predetermined spot of a structure having the road that the vehicle passes, and calculates an axle weight of the vehicle from the surface displacement and a displacement coefficient of the road. The state estimator generates an axle weight distribution from the axle weight calculated by the axle weight measurer, and estimates a deterioration degree of the structure, using the axle weight distribution.

A weight estimation apparatus 1 includes: an impulsive force calculation unit 2 calculating an impulsive force using an acceleration response indicating vibration generated in a structure by the moving object (vehicle 27) moving through the structure, and a weight estimation unit 3 estimating a weight of the moving object using the impulsive force.

The technology involves operation of a self-driving truck or other cargo vehicle when it is being inspected at a weigh station. This may include determining whether a weigh station is open for inspection. Once at the weigh station, the vehicle may follow instructions of an inspection officer or autonomous inspection system. The vehicle may perform predefined actions or operations so that various vehicle systems and safety issues can be evaluated, such as the brakes, lights, tires, connections between the tractor and trailer, exposed fuel tanks, leaks, etc. A visual inspection may be performed to ensure the load is secured, vehicle and cargo documents meet certain criteria, and the carrier's safety record meets any requirements. In addition, the weigh station itself may be operated in a partly or fully autonomous mode when dealing with autonomous and manually driven vehicles.

Systems and methods for an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) capable of automatically balancing large and heavy objects for transport through a facility. One embodiment is an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) including a balancing plate configured to support a load, load sensors configured to detect a weight distribution of the load, and an actuator configured to shift the balancing plate laterally. The AGV also includes a weight balancing controller configured to determine a center of gravity of the load based on the weight distribution detected by the load sensors, to determine that the center of gravity of the load is vertically misaligned with a center of gravity of the AGV, and to direct the actuator to shift the balancing plate laterally to move the center of gravity of the load toward vertical alignment with the center of gravity of the AGV.

A method for generating a calibration function of a WIM sensor that is arranged in a roadway and measures a wheel force exerted on the surface of the roadway includes recording the roadway's road profile. A wheel force is determined by a simulation. The simulation is used to determine the dependency of the wheel force on the road profile for at least one position of the road profile that has been recorded in the first step. The dependency is used to minimize the influence of the road profile on the measured wheel force of the WIM sensor.

The technology involves operation of a self-driving truck or other cargo vehicle when it is being inspected at a weigh station. This may include determining whether a weigh station is open for inspection. Once at the weigh station, the vehicle may follow instructions of an inspection officer or autonomous inspection system. The vehicle may perform predefined actions or operations so that various vehicle systems and safety issues can be evaluated, such as the brakes, lights, tires, connections between the tractor and trailer, exposed fuel tanks, leaks, etc. A visual inspection may be performed to ensure the load is secured, vehicle and cargo documents meet certain criteria, and the carrier's safety record meets any requirements. In addition, the weigh station itself may be operated in a partly or fully autonomous mode when dealing with autonomous and manually driven vehicles.

A method to calibrate a Weigh in Motion (WIM) sensor that is arranged in a road flush with a road surface for determining a force exerted on the road surface by a vehicle's wheel transgressing the WIM sensor uses an evaluation unit that calculates the wheel force upon receiving the vehicle's velocity and a distance signal from a first device fixed on the vehicle and coordinates the wheel force with a synchronized signal from the WIM sensor to generate a calibrate function for the WIM sensor. The evaluation unit continuously adjusts the wheel force to take into account one or more of wheel pressure, wheel temperature, wheel tilt and vehicle acceleration. A system employing the method includes the vehicle, the evaluation unit, the first device, a synchronization device such as a GPS unit, and sensors for one or more of pressure, temperature, tilt and acceleration.