Ultrasonic sensor based traffic information acquisition system; a cheaper alternative for ITS application in developing countries

Abstract The use of Intelligent Traffic System (ITS) for traffic congestion and jams management has yielded successful results over the years. ITS which uses various hardware and software tools to capture traffic flow, automatically adjustment traffic signalling lights and vehicle speed limit displays is making most developed cities smarter by helping control traffic flow thereby minimizing congestion. An effective ITS requires excellent traffic information acquisition modules which has seen a lot of techniques already implemented. The mode of installation and maintenance of traffic information acquisition modules affect the cost of ITS significantly. In order to minimize the cost of installation and maintenance, the use of ultrasonic sensor for traffic flow has also been proposed. However, its challenges are the horizontal mount of sensors which makes them susceptible to interference by non-vehicular moving objects, number of sensors used for implementation, and energy consumption of modules due to system design. This paper therefore proposes an overhead or vertical sensor mount, single sensor for a node, and congestion estimation based on Occupancy Ratio algorithm. Experimental results indicate that the design can effectively be used to determine road conditions at a relatively cheaper cost as compared with other ultrasonic sensor implementations.