Pavement Surface Evaluation Interacting Vibration Characteristics of an Electric Mobility Scooter

Electric mobility scooters (EMSs) which are solely battery-operated personal small vehicles are becoming an increasingly common way for a walking aid. To ensure the accessibility of EMS users, pavement surface condition of sidewalks is one of the important factors in terms of traveling safety and comfort. This study examines the requirements of evaluating sidewalk pavements by focusing on the interaction between surface properties and vibration responses of an EMS. As a result, the EMS consists of two distinctive resonance frequencies of 8 and 30 Hz associated with the megatexture and microtexture in the surface properties, respectively, at a constant speed of 3 km/h. This finding proves that the EMS vibration highly correlates with the Mean Profile Depth (MPD) inducing axle excitations but not the International Roughness Index (IRI). According to the pavement-vehicle interaction analysis, this study finally suggests that measuring acceleration of an EMS is capable of estimating MPD which is a good estimator of surface friction.