Development of Portable Air Quality Index (AQI) and Emergency Vehicles Preemption Prototype Based on Internet of Mobile Things (IoMT)

Abstract

The technological advancements of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the recent past have facilitated immense progress towards mitigation of environmental pollution through smart transportation systems and solutions. In particular, communication to the commuters about the traffic ahead or occurrences of congestion has been envisioned to play a major role in outsmarting traffic through mobile applications giving rise to the emergence of the Internet of Mobile Things (IoMT). However, the existing mobile applications that serve as traffic reporting solutions still face major issues such as fixed route suggestions, longer delays during busy hours or emergencies, inefficient prompting of road accidents and heavy traffic en route to a particular destination. This research aims at providing solutions for notifying the commuters with updates on the traffic based upon the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the routes towards the destination and also about the approach of emergency vehicles. The cross-platform mobile application in this way enables the user to opt for a route with good air quality so that the more congested routes are avoided thereby mitigating the air pollution induced by road traffic. The experimental testing and validation of the proposed methodology are applied for areas belonging to Greater Kuala Lumpur. The various timings divided according to peak and non-peak hours are experimentally tested for analyzing the parameters of traffic usage and pattern through the mobile application. The outcome of the experiments has showed that when traffic flow is modelled and governed through vehicular emissions and concentrations of air pollutants, nearly 75% of the congested traffic is reduced thereby, giving rise to pollution-free environment as well as mitigation of urban heat island (UHI) effect that is formed through vehicular heat generation and difference in temperatures. On the other hand, the approach of emergency vehicles also prompts the commuters to avoid panic. CCS Concepts • Hardware➝Emerging tools and methodologies.