ABSTRACT
The issue of traffic congestion is
one that began it’s rise since the conception of traffic and the subsequent
invention of vehicles of different sorts. With little or no widespread modifications made to the road systems to
accommodate the proliferation of vehicles being manufactured and added to the
Nigerian roads, there needs to be a more efficient and less intrusive way of
reducing traffic congestion on major arterial highways.
This project proposes the model of a
system that has the ability to balance out the level of traffic congestion
between different highways that all share the property of leading a passenger
or driver to the same destination.
The system makes use of magnetic sensors to detect the
entry and exist of the model vehicles represented by toy cars. Upon detection,
the data acquired by the sensors is processed by the microcontrollers and the
information is then transmitted by a GSM module to an Internet of Things (IoT)
platform that plays the role of displaying the output of the information
processed. The achievement of the declared aim and objectives proposes a system
that can reduce the problem of traffic congestion upon implementation at a
larger scale.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
1.1.1
INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
1.4 METHODOLOGY
1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
1.7 EXPECTED OUTCOME
1.8 LIMITATIONS
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
1.9.1
SENSOR NODES
1.9.2
MICROCONTROLLER
1.9.3
TRANSCEIVER
1.9.4
POWER SOURCE
1.9.5
SENSORS
1.9.6
WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS (WSN)
1.9.7
REAL-TIME COMPUTING
1.9.8
SIGNAL PROCESSING
1.10 ORGANISATION OF WORK
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2. OVERVIEW SENSOR TECHNOLOGIES
2.2.1.
EVOLUTION OF TRAFFIC FLOW SENSOR
TECHNOLOGY
2.2.2 VEHICLE SENSOR TECHNOLOGY AND CHARACTERISTICS
2.2.2.1
INDUCTIVE LOOP DETECTORS
2.2.2.2
MAGNETIC SENSORS
2.2.2.3
VIDEO IMAGE PROCESSORS
2.2.2.4
INFRARED SENSORS
2.2.2.5
LASER RADAR SENSORS
2.3 REVIEW OF CLOSELY RELATED WORKS
CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 JUSTIFICATION OF METHODOLOGY
3.3 SYSTEM ANALYSIS
3.3.1 DESIGN COMPONENTS
3.3.2 ANALYSIS OF PROPOSED SYSTEM
3.3.3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
3.3.4 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
3.4 BLOCK DIAGRAM
3.5.1 HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
3.5.2 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
CHAPTER FOUR: CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 CIRCUIT DESIGN AND OPERATION
4.2.2 CIRCUITOPERATION
4.2.2.1 SIGNAL ACQUISITION
4.2.2.2 SIGNAL CLASSIFICATION
4.2.2.3 SIGNAL PROCESSING
4.2.2.4 SIGNAL DISPLAY
4.3 TESTING AND ANALYSIS
4.3.1 SETTING UP THE IOT PLATFORM
4.3.2 PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
4.3.3 PRECAUTIONS
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
5.2 LIMITATIONS
5.3 SUMMARY
5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.5 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
In today’s traffic
system there is an estimate of one billion cars on the roads which leave
traffic officials grappling with congestion and face challenges from
affordability constraints, increasing emissions and drivers’ growing needs. In
a nation like United States alone, it has been recorded that the total cost of
congestion for the 85 U.S. urban areas is estimated to be 65 billion dollars
per year, from 3.5 billion hours of delay and 5.7 billion gallons of excess
fuel consumption (Cheung and Varaiya, 2007).
Bringing it down to
our motherland Nigeria, in a research conducted ROM Transportation Engineering
between the years 2007 and 2009 it was discovered that the costs of congestion
in Lagos were estimated to be $1billion (about N160 billion) yearly.
(Olorunpomi, 2010). These conclusions were reached based on the official
population figure of 17 million for Lagos state. The research concluded further
that Lagosians collectively lose 3 billion hours to traffic congestions yearly,
and that if that time were reduced by 20 per cent, it would save the state at
least $1 billion (about N150 billion) yearly. (Olorunpomi, 2010)
Several definitions
of the term congestion have been been proposed by various authors in an attempt
to be somewhat unique but in the end, all roads lead to the same point in that
no one definition is farfetched from another.
The Joint Transport
Research Centre of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) and the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT)
particularly define traffic congestion as: 1) the impedance vehicles impose on
each other, due to the speed-flow relationship, in conditions where the use of
a transport system approaches capacity; 2) a relative phenomenon that is linked
to the difference between the roadway system performance that users expect and
how the system actually performs.” and
3) a situation in
which demand for road space exceeds supply. (Popoola, Abiola & Adeniji,
2013).
From the above data
provided, it is clear and beyond doubt that measures need to be put in place to
find solutions to such a crucial matter, a more intelligent way of handling the costs
that have been affecting the transportation system on a global level.
“Connected and
automated vehicles are closer than ever to being part of our everyday world,
and the decisions we make regarding these and other advanced technologies could
profoundly affect the future of transportation” (Auer, Feese, & Lockwood,
2010).
1.1.1 INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
The concept of
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) refers to that of an operational
system that, when combined and managed, encompasses the operating capability of
the overall transportation system. It can therefore be defined as the
combination of advances in information systems, communications, sensors and advanced modelling
and algorithms to provide and also improve the performance of transportation
systems for enhanced safety, efficiency and serviceability. Also assuring the
reduction in urban congestion and equally making it possible for the comfortable
proliferation of transit ridership and good movement without a dire need for
investments in the physical/structural road facilities (Adeleke, Jimoh, Yusuf,
Kolo, Jimoh, Anwar, Abdulraham & Oyewobi, 2016).
The ITS
technologies generally include
(a) sensors to
detect traffic conditions and vehicle motions
(b)
wireless communications between roadway infrastructure and vehicles and among
different vehicles
(c)
data processing and storage
(d)
electromechanical actuators
(e)
software to implement and optimise the desired behaviours in any or all of
these sub-systems or the whole transportation systems (Adeleke & Jimoh,
2005).
The idea behind
ITS, however, can not be fully uncovered without a discuss on the terminology,
“telematics”.
“Telematics
describes the combination of the transmission of information over a
telecommunication network and the computerised processing of this information”.
(Goel 2007).
The operations of
telematics lies on the foundations of softwares, devices and applications and
can be used primarily for; electronic communication, linking individual
elements of the telematics system; and for information gathering (measurement
sensors, video cameras, radars e.t.c.) amongst other important uses. The terminology
telematics has been introduce already into various branches of the economy,
hence the appearance of terms such as: financial, building, health,
environmental protection, operational, postal, library telematics (Nowacki,
Krysiuk & Kopczewski 2012). One branch of primary focus especially as it
relates to this project topic is that of transport telematics which encompasses
systems that allow the influencing of the road traffic participants’ behaviour
or operation of vehicles technical elements. (Internationales Verkehrsween,
2003).
The Directive of
the European Council (2010) defines Intelligent Transportation Systems as
meaning systems in which information and communication technologies are applied
in the files of the road transport.
Simply put by
Berghout et al (1999) defined ITS as to mean the system, in which
people, roads and used vehicles are linked through the network utilising,
advanced information. Hence, Intelligent Transportation Systems are a direct
application of Telematics (Nowacki et al, 2012).
In our daily lives
people encounter various challenges with traffic, has it is a major hazard in
both developing countries and developed countries of the world. In addressing
the topic of traffic congestion uncovered that concept of traffic congestion
cannot be eradicated from the society at large however attempts can be made to
mitigate to a minimal level the discomfort that traffic congestion causes to
road users on a daily basis.
Most works have
been focused on solutions and have all made attempts by proposing their
different suggestions on systems that have the potential to reduce this
discomfort either through the control of traffic signal or by trying to
attempting to measure the traffic congestion level on roads and provide routing
suggestions to users.
Our work focuses
primarily on the latter of the aforementioned in that it proposes a model
system of real road traffic conditions and takes a measure of the traffic
dentist on roads and provides advisory messages to the users.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
The problem of
traffic congestion is a critical one and with so much time being wasted in
traffic jams. “The unreliability of travel time due to varying conditions makes
it difficult and sometimes even impossible to give an estimate of an individual’s
arrival time to a set out destination” (FHWA, 2006).
Inductive loops
have almost always been the most widely used techniques in the traffic
surveillance mechanism but it has of recent come to the attention of
stakeholders that the implementation of such a technique on a wide scale has
implications on the traffic conditions, causing serious disruption of traffic
due to the installation and maintenance of these said surveillance systems,
which leads to a relatively high cost on the level of ten thousand dollars per
intersection. It was also observed that the system of using inductive loops is
that certain weather conditions have profound effects on the system and in a
case where there is a detonation in the road pavements, these in-road devices
could be potentially damaged and would hence require costs to repair, replace
or even just maintain the conditions (FHWA, 2006 & Cheung et al, 2007).
There is therefore
a dire need for less intrusive methods to reducing the inconvenience attributed
to traffic congestions.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The major aim of
this project is to design a model system that is capable of reading traffic
congestion on a road structure with the functionality of providing the end user
(model driver) with a relatively more convenient alternative route to the same
destination on the basis of the compared traffic congestion level of the roads
in question.
The objectives are:
1.
to carry out a review on other closely related
works and learn from their works.
2.
to build a model that properly demonstrates the
real life application of the said system.
3.
to design an application software that will
accompany the functional requirements of the entire system.
1.4 METHODOLOGY
In designing a
system that will be able to meet with the aims and objectives of achieving
traffic surveillance effectively, the approach to be taken is such that
infrared sensors will be placed at known
locations by the sides of the model roads to detect the traffic level congestion.
With the help of a source code written in Arduino C++ language (embedded
programming) the traffic congestion level can be estimated by measuring the
number of model vehicles present in a unit amount of space on the said road.
The signals picked up by the infrared sensors process the traffic congestion
data and send the information to the microcontroller unit of the system. The
information transmitted to the micro-controller is further processed and then
sent to a remote server via a GSM module. Meanwhile at the client-side, the
user queries the server-side platform to get information on the traffic
congestion level on the two model roads in question.
1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY
This project is
limited to the design and implementation of sensors with the ability to measure
traffic congestion on system using a function which works with
micro-controllers and application development in urban settlements.
The real world
implementation of this study is extended to arterial road highways within urban
settings. The system is structured such that it can be implemented on
practically every ideal highway but for the sake and nature of this project the
geographical region of focus has been limited to Nigeria.
The system in
itself is designed to be flexible enough to adjust to different road lengths
and basic structure.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
Logic declares that
there has never been more vehicles on roads all over the world since the
conception of road traffic than there is today. Due to the proliferation in the
number of vehicles on the road, traffic problems are bound to exist.
“Therefore, the use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has become
mandatory for obtaining traffic information from roads” (Fawzi and Hassan,
2012).
1.7 EXPECTED OUTCOME
Since Traffic
congestion is one of the major problems encountered by human beings on a daily
basis in the society at large, this project is targeted at mitigating the rate
of traffic congestion in the society. In the event that all factors play as are
expected to then the success of this project will definitely help in reducing
the excess traffic congestion.
1.8 LIMITATIONS
At this stage in
the implementation of this project, one major limitation would be that the
entire design is a prototype which would be tested with model of a traffic system
since the real design would not be presented for demonstration.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
1.9.1 SENSOR NODES
A sensor node (a.k.a mote) is a
node used in wireless networks which is capable of performing some processing,
and gathering of sensory information and communicating with other connected
nodes (components) in the wireless network. (Liew, 2006)
1.9.2 MICROCONTROLLER
The microcontroller
which is said to be the heartbeat of the sensor node performs functions such
as, processing of data and control of the functionality of other components in
the sensor node. Examples of microcontroller are: a general purpose desktop
microprocessor, digital signal processors, etc.
1.9.3 TRANSCEIVER
Transceiver is a
device that acts as an intermediary between a transmitter and a receiver by
transmitting signals received from the sensors between them and making
meaningful information when producing results. (Haynes, 2011)
1.9.4 POWER SOURCE
“An important aspect in the development of a wireless
sensor node is ensuring that there is always adequate energy available to power
the system.” (Bryant, 2007). More energy is required for data transmission than
any other process. Power is stored either in batteries or capacitors.
1.9.5
SENSORS
They
are hardware devices that produce a measurable response to a change in a
physical condition like temperature or pressure. Sensors measure physical data
of the parameter to be monitored and have specific characteristics such as accuracy,
sensitivity etc.
1.9.6
WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS (WSN)
These
are spatially distributed autonomous sensors that monitor physical or
environmental conditions, such as temperature, sound, pressure, etc. and cooperatively
pass their data through the network to a main location
1.9.7 REAL-TIME COMPUTING
A real-time system is described as one which "controls an
environment by receiving data, processing them, and returning the results
quickly to affect the environment at that time.
1.9.8
SIGNAL PROCESSING
Signal processing is a technique that
encompasses the fundamental theory, applications, and implementations of
processing or transferring information contained in many different physical, or
abstract formats broadly designated as signals. It uses mathematical,
statistical, computational, heuristic, and linguistic representations,
formalisms, and techniques for representation, modelling, analysis, synthesis,
discovery, recovery, sensing, acquisition, extraction, learning, security, or
forensics. (Liew, S. C 2006)
1.10 ORGANISATION OF WORK
This
section gives an overview of what subsequent chapters would look like and it
will also give readers an insight into what each chapter entails
CHAPTER TWO: (literature
review): this section gives detailed information about various inventions
and research work carried out in the area of traffic management as related to
this project topic.
CHAPTER THREE: (system analysis and design): this chapter
explains how the system works; giving a detailed evaluation of its design,
hardware and software requirements.
CHAPTER FOUR: (construction
and testing): this chapter deals with the implementation and operation of
the system. It primarily concentrates on how the outcomes of the system design
are used in the implementation of the system.
CHAPTER FIVE: (summary, future work, conclusion and
recommendation): this chapter gives a precise summary of the
whole project, draws conclusion on findings and observation and gives
recommendation for future work.
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