Floating Car Observer - an Innovative Vehicle-Sensor for Urban and Highway Scenarios

Abstract Stationary detectors together with Floating Car Data (FCD) are used today to generate information about the current situation on the roads. Without the need of equipping vehicle fleets with FCD sensors or installing lots of stationary detectors, the novel technique of Floating Car Observer (FCO) offers an alternative for capaciously measuring the oncoming traffic. Thereby, the speeds of oncoming vehicles are measured from a moving vehicle using a special sensor module. According to this principle, a low-cost visual sensor module has been developed. This sensor uses the reflection capability of passing vehicles' number plates in order to achieve data about driving direction and speed of these vehicles. The detection capabilities of the developed FCO module has been tested in several field tests. In urban scenarios the detection has been adapted to public transport requirements where the highway scenarios have been specialised concerning the detection of traffic situations in roadwork construction sites. This paper describes the hardware and software components of the sensor module as well as the field test results with detailed explanations.