Sensors and Platforms

MTRI's many sensor platforms add key analysis from new vantage points to transportation research. 

Our sensor technology includes a multitude of devices and applications. Find out more about our equipment and capabilities including:

Projects

Snowy road at night.

Benchmarking Sensors for Vehicle Computer Vision Systems

AAA National approached researchers from the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) and the Michigan Tech Research Institute of Michigan Technological University with a proposal request that centered on comparing the performance of Lidar, RADAR, and cameras for enabling automated driving functions.

Learn more about how CAR and MTRI put the proposal together.


Ford card.

Ground-Truth Data Collection for Autonomous Vehicle Development

Research focused on collecting measurements from a suite of sensors selected for an autonomous vehicle, along with ground truth data, to be used for the development and evaluation of algorithms.

Find out why this work is crucial to the future of transportation.


Aerial view of a divided highway.

Evaluating the Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Transportation Purposes

Study objectives: to develop, test, and demonstrate how UAV technology can help provide visual inspections from above for a variety of structures and locations of interest to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).

Discover how we help make Michigan (and the nation's) roadways easier to assess and maintain.


People on a boat with a hexacopter flying above.

UAV Deployed Sensors

MTRI deploys multiple sensors aboard its UAV fleet to collect critical project data, including optical cameras, thermal sensors, lidar, ground penetrating radar, lightweight portable radiometers, and a tetracam multispectral camera.

Dive into the work we do to help both the natural environment and the national economy.


Aerial view of bridge with colored areas marking defects.

3-D Optical Bridge-Evaluation System (3DOBS)

3DOBS is an easily deployable bridge evaluation system (Figure 1) used for rapidly assessing surface condition indicators such as the area, volume, and location of deck spalls and scaling.