Avoid slip-ups with this cutting-edge development in friction and interrelated pavement safety measurements. The intelligent Safety Assessment Vehicle (iSAVe) is a critical network-level tool for ensuring the safety of motorists in wet road conditions by pinpointing exact areas where vehicle tyres lose grip on the road surface.
Proactive Risk Management: Continuous friction datasets can be cross-referenced directly with localised crash data within Hawkeye Insight to identify and target high-risk friction zones before incidents occur.
Objective Network Assessment: Areas of high friction demand—such as horizontal curves, braking approaches, intersections, and tight bends—can be assessed objectively using synchronised, interrelated safety metrics.
Targeted Maintenance Spend: High-speed continuous monitoring ensures rehabilitation treatments are applied accurately and efficiently to maintain a reliable level of ‘grip’ across the entire network.
To deliver world-class repeatability that adheres to strict international safety standards (such as BS 7941-1 and proposed ASTM standards), the iSAVe relies on automated vehicle hardware subsystems rather than manual adjustments:
Dynamic Load Monitoring: The system constantly measures and accounts for vertical load variations on the test wheel, eliminating data errors caused by vehicle movement, changing fuel levels, or shifting water weight.
Speed-Compensated Water Film: An automated pump system guarantees an exact, uniform water film thickness is applied ahead of the test tyre at all operating speeds, ensuring your safety data is fully standardized year after year.
The core of the iSAVe is the Sideways Force Coefficient (SFC) assembly which measures the friction of the road surface in the wheelpaths
Works continuously at traffic speeds, with an operating speed range of at least 50 to 80 km/h
Able to collect far more data than traditional locked wheel or friction testing equipment such as a grip tester or other trailer-based CFME devices
Efficient water usage, with a water flow regulated pump controller to ensure correct flow at all speeds, with flow automatically turned on when the measurement wheel is lowered and off when the wheel is raised
Also fitted with sensors capable of collecting roughness, rutting, macrotexture, imagery, geometry and spatial and linear referencing location
Fully integrated into the Hawkeye platform – Hawkeye Insight can be used to for data display and investigation
Determines the continuous wet skid resistance and friction profile of a pavement surface by measuring the Sideways Force Coefficient (SFC). This high-speed capability allows global road authorities to objectively assess friction demand across entire networks.
The iSAVe® is designed and built to meet or exceed strict international standards. It operates under license to the UK Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in full compliance with British Standard BS 7941-1:2006, while simultaneously aligning with proposed ASTM standards for North American markets.
Measures friction in both the left and right wheelpaths simultaneously in a single pass. This provides a comprehensive, double-wheelpath network assessment that eliminates the massive data gaps found in traditional spot-testing methods or single-wheel devices.
Features an automated, speed-controlled water pump system that applies a highly consistent water film thickness ahead of the test tyre at all operational velocities. The low-flow design ensures extreme water efficiency, allowing for up to 300 km (185 miles) of continuous testing on a single tank.
Engineered for high-productivity field operations; a specialised split-rim design allows your survey crew to perform quick, easy replacements of the measuring test tyres during routine field maintenance.
Seamlessly integrates into the cloud-based Hawkeye Platform for efficient data acquisition, processing, and analysis. All continuous friction datasets flow into Hawkeye Insight, allowing managers to instantly cross-reference pavement friction indexes directly with localised crash data.
In addition to continuous pavement friction, the multi-sensor platform simultaneously collects critical interrelated safety parameters in a single pass, including roughness (IRI), rutting, macrotexture (MPD and SMTD), high-resolution asset imagery, road geometry, and spatial GPS positioning.
Incorporates an advanced suite of automated hardware subsystems—including dynamic vertical load monitoring, continuous tyre pressure management, and ambient/tyre thermal tracking—to eliminate data drift caused by vehicle dynamics or changing environmental climates.
Director
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