A Comprehensive Review of On-Board Weighing Systems (OBWS) In Heavy Vehicles

Onboard weighing systems (OBWS) offer several advantages over traditional (stationary) weigh stations and weigh in-motion (WIM) systems and allow for real-time monitoring of heavy vehicle loads. OBWS do not require any external infrastructure and are embedded within the vehicles to measure loads continuously while the vehicle is moving. Most studies conducted in the review have focused on WIM technologies, but there are limited comprehensive studies on vehicle-mounted OBWS. This gap is addressed with a structured literature review and a comparative discussion of available OBWS technologies, sensor configurations, placement strategies and signal processing techniques. This review covers the most popular sensors, such as load cells, strain gauges, piezoelectric sensors, fibre Bragg gratings (FBG), and novel emerging sensors. The results indicate that load cells have high accuracy but are difficult to install and cost more to implement. Less expensive and more popular, strain gauges are sensitive to environmental conditions and to signal drift. Optical sensors, such as FBG, however, are more accurate and durable but more expensive for large-scale applications. Noise, drift and nonlinearity can be minimized using signal processing techniques, such as chopper stabilization, digital filtering, compensation techniques and machine learning, but at the cost of increased complexity and computation load. Future studies are recommended to focus on the integration of sensors in a simpler manner, optimization of sensor placement using finite element analysis and metaheuristic optimization algorithms, and integration of sensor with AI for better performance in terms of accuracy, reliability and operational efficiency in OBWS.