HW-6( Aroka only )
Contents Problem Summary: 2 Stakeholders 3 Problem Solutions 3 Current Problem 3 Solution 1:- Intelligent Dynamic Traffic Light Sequence Using RFID: 4 Solution 2:-Automatic Crash Notification & Event Reporting: 5 How does it work? 6 Solution 3:- Vehicle Detection system using Induction Loop methodology 7 Proposed system 7 How does it work: 8 References 10
Problem Summary:
In most developing and developed countries, increasing road traffic generates many different problems. These problems ranges from people spending more hours in traffic jams, longer commute times, increasing number of accidents, and increased traffic polluting the environment among other issues. Ultimately, it is the task of local governments to develop methods and techniques to tackle the issue of constantly growing traffic and to minimize or completely eliminate the problems that arise from the overgrown traffic. Kuwait is also suffering from similar problems because according to a survey conducted in year 2007 by the Minister of Interior, Kuwait to identify the current situation of traffic and the various problems occurring from traffic growth, the number of vehicles in Kuwait increase by 6 to 9% annual rate.
The majority of these vehicles were personal use cars rather than construction vehicles (MOI.Gov.kw, 2007). This statistic suggests that traffic in Kuwait has been constantly growing in last decade at a notable growth rate which in turn increases death, injuries and pollutions. So in this report we will make recommendations to tackle all problems using Intelligent Transportation System. The main aim of this report is to make recommendations for three Intelligent Transportation Systems for Kuwait to deal with its increasing problems related to traffic growth.
Stakeholders
The various stakeholders which are directly involved with the proposed solution are as follows:
a) General Public who will affect moistly with this solution
b) Government who will have to invest for these solutions
c) Technology companies who will provide technology to implement these solutions
Problem Solutions
In this assignment, I will propose three solutions to solve three traffic problems related to Kuwait:-
a) Solution 1 to avoid traffic congestion
b) Solution 2 to propose system to tackle emergency situation due to emergency to avoid deaths
c) Solution 3 to detect vehicle at traffic system to avoid congestion problem
Current Problem
The standard traffic lights which are set up at various junctions in Kuwait operate upon predefined timing schemes, which are set at the time of installation and can be further reset. The timing schemes are arrived by considering normal traffic conditions.
There should be different timing schemes for different junctions but many lights operate under a simplified sequence. This problem has encouraged the need to solve the timing problem. In order to design and develop an effective as well as intelligent traffic control method, a number of factors regarding the condition of roads should be considered. A number of intelligent traffic lights used now a day have sensors which feed a predefined algorithm which in turn control the operation of lights.
This algorithm presumes the traffic to be moving smoothly and thereby doesn’t require external management. However, in cases of congestion or any untoward incident, the lights fail to adapt to the scenario. The figure below explaining the old traffic system algorithm
Solution 1:- Intelligent Dynamic Traffic Light Sequence Using RFID:
The main areas for which the RFID traffic system has an advantage over the conventional are the areas of image processing along with beam interruption methods. This method is applicable in case of multi vehicle, multi road junction area and multi lanes. Its changes the algorithms for each traffic lane in real time for smooth traffic flow. It does its job by simulating a traffic policeman’s decisions at the same scenario.
The routing as well as the number of vehicles in each lane are the parameters for the calculations and decisions. The RFID consists of four important parts, the AersoScout RFID tags, the Cisco access point, the Wide Area Network along with the Cisco location server. The responsibilities of the parts are simulating moving vehicles, detecting the RFID tags, simulating the omnipresent surroundings and the RFID software respectively.
The microcontroller of the system is the location server. It feeds the location and the time of tagging from the sensors through the internet to the management system. The system then processes the incoming information and takes decisions accordingly to control the traffic. The detailed diagram showing the working is given below: -
Solution 2:-Automatic Crash Notification & Event Reporting:
The next big thing in user automotive safety is the Automatic Crash Notification (ACN). In case of serious accidents of vehicles, the three technologies of telecommunication, location and automotive are put together to automatically generate an emergency alert to be sent to the emergency call centers. If a car’s airbag deploys or in case of manual pressing of the car’s distress button, an automatic alert is sent to the emergency call center through wireless communication technology.
Then, according to the vehicle’s location the dispatcher sends the nearest possible help to the car under distress. This, in turn, reduces the response times during emergencies along with the effect of injuries. Thus knowing the extent of emergency with its exact location helps in saving considerable tax money. The further advancement of ACN, the Automatic Crash Notification & Event Reporting (ACN&ER) not only just alerts the emergency call centers about the incident but also collects the data from the vehicle about the severity of the accident and the crash information.
This vehicle crash information is then paired up with the medical information, such as any prevalent medical condition, to provide the ultimate urgent care which is needed to save a life both at the place of the accident and the hospital where the victim is to be taken into.
How does it work?
The ACN device in the vehicle gets activated as soon as the vehicle faces an impact. The information about the crash is then sent to the emergency call center along with a wireless call informing about the crash. The data which is provided by ACN includes the speed at the time of impact, the direction of force, if the car has toppled or not.
The ACN also confirms the identity of the victim over voice which helps in knowing the medical data, such as prevalent medical condition, primary physician of the victim. The combined data is then sent to the ambulance for their information and the hospital for being prepared for the critical needs of the arriving accident victim. The detailed diagram showing the working is as given below:-
Solution 3:- Vehicle Detection system using Induction Loop methodology
Proposed system
I am proposing induction loop vehicle detection technology to detect vehicles to control traffic and avoiding traffic jam at Kuwait traffic signals. It is helpful in the sense that it can detect the passing vehicles at various signals in the Kuwait. It will help us to find no. of vehicles approaching the traffic light so that we can change signals timing accordingly.
How does it work:
It works on the principle of induction. As shown in the figure below, the electronics unit transmits energy into the wire loops at frequencies between 10 kHz to 200 kHz, depending on the model. The inductive-loop system behaves as a tuned electrical circuit in which the loop wire and lead-in cable are the inductive elements. When a vehicle passes over the loop or is stopped within the loop, the vehicle induces eddy currents in the wire loops, which decrease their inductance.
The decreased inductance actuates the electronics unit output relay or solid-state optically isolated output, which sends a pulse to the traffic signal controller signifying the passage or presence of a vehicle. Parking structures for automobiles may use inductive loops to track traffic (occupancy) in and out or may be used by access gates or ticketing systems to detect vehicles while others use Parking guidance and information systems. Railways may use an induction loop to detect the passage of trains past a given point, as an electronic treadle.
The relatively crude nature of the loop's structure means that only metal masses above a certain size are capable of triggering the relay. The loop does not thus produce very many "false positive" triggers (say, for example, by a pedestrian crossing the loop with a pocket full of loose metal change) but it sometimes also means that bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles stopped at such intersections may never be detected by them (and therefore risk being ignored by the switch/signal
References
Tarnoff, Philip John, Bullock, Darcy M, Young, Stanley E, et al. "Continuing Evolution of Travel Time Data Information Collection and Processing", Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2009 Paper #09-2030. TRB 88th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD
Mohan, Prashanth, Venkata N. Padmanabhan, and Ramachandran Ramjee. Nericell: rich monitoring of road and traffic conditions using mobile smartphones. Proceedings of the 6th ACM conference on Embedded network sensor systems. ACM, 2008.
Tyagi, V., Kalyanaraman, S., Krishnapuram, R. (2012). "Vehicular Traffic Density State Estimation Based on Cumulative Road Acoustics". IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. line feed character in |title= at position 43 (help)
Joshi, V., Rajamani, N., Takayuki, K., Prathapaneni, N., Subramaniam, L. V., (2013). Information Fusion Based Learning for Frugal Traffic State Sensing. Proceedings of the Twenty-Third International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.