HW-4

Contents Problem Summary 1 Problem Solutions 1 Solution 1:- Intelligent Dynamic Traffic Light Sequence Using RFID 2 Current Problem 2 Solutions proposed for Kuwait 3 Solution 2:-Automatic Crash Notification & Event Reporting 4 How it works? 5 Solution 3:- Green Traffic solution system 6 Proposed system & Solution 6 References 9

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. Hence, 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.

In this exercise we 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 tackle environmental pollution 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 new system of RFID enables the intelligent and dynamic traffic lights an superior object tagged recognition. The figure showing the problem is given below:-

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. It is dynamic in nature and 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:-

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.

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:-

IN this proposal, we are proposing of going environment friendly when traffic signals are Red. In this system we are trying to automatically switch off the vehicle’s engines when they are idle at the traffic signal at Kuwait for more than 15 seconds without the need for a manual intervention. This system is based on a transmitter-receiver system where the transmitter would be present at the roads at the traffic signals and the receiver would be present on the vehicle.

The Addressable beneficiary of this system would be everyone who has a vehicle, consuming fuel. The general public would be able to save more than 30% on what they spend on fuel. Moreover the government’s focus on reducing emission would considerably decrease and also saving of fuel on a larger scale would reduce greater dependency on Oil. The current problem the government is facing is that there is no cheap technology to address this type of problem.

In our plan there will be two sides of the system as given below. The transmitter would be installed by Govt. to set up the initial infrastructure while the receiver part would focus on the general public or the automobile companies. The idea is to use long range FM transmitters with high directional antenna to be connected at the traffic signals and would be designed by them.

The transmitters would be of high quality implying less maintenance cost in future. The FM receivers would be connected to the vehicle and when data is fed from the transmitter, the vehicle will be off. The receivers would be connected to a microcontroller and to the automobile’s engine. The maintenance cost of the receiver would be minimal. Hence, it will help in reducing pollution in Kuwait. The detailed diagram showing the working of this intelligent transportation solution system is given below:-

 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.