In order to study the incipient velocity of sediment particles in rough beds, an experimental device was designed to measure the distribution of the exposure angles of sediment particles. The obtained results showed that exposure angles conformed to Gaussian distribution. Based on the random mechanism of particle position and flow characteristics, an incipient probability of single particles concept, along with an equation for calculating this probability, are proposed. Additionally, an equation is derived to calculate incipient velocity based on incipient probability. Comparing the results obtained in this paper with experimental data, shows that the derived equations are of high practical importance. The mechanisms of coarse sediment incipient motion and transport are also investigated.