Road roughness is an important factor in determining the quality of a stretch of road. The International Roughness Index, a specific measure of road roughness, is widely used metric. However, in order to measure roughness, an accurate road profile must exist. To measure the roads, terrain profiling systems are commonly used. Modern systems based on laser scanners and inertial navigation systems (INS) are able to measure thousands of data points per seconds over a wide path. However, because of the subsystems in the profiling systems, they are susceptible to errors that reduce the accuracy of the measurements. Thus, both major subsystems - the laser and the navigation system - must be accurate and synchronized for the road to be correctly scanned. The sensors' mounting was investigated to ensure that the vehicle motion is accurately captured and accounted for, demonstrated in the Vehicle Terrain Performance Lab's (VTPL) Ford Explorer profilometer. Next, INS errors were addressed. These may include drift in the inertial measurement unit or errors due to poor reception with the global navigation satellite system. The solution to these errors was demonstrated through the VTPL's HMMWV profilometer.

Master of Science