Floating Car Observer – Approaches for Traffic Management Strategies by Analysing Oncoming Vehicles

Abstract

For traffic management systems, the knowledge of urban traffic conditions is essential. The strategy of the Floating Car Observer (FCO) is to collect traffic data via moving traffic sensors. The data of oncoming cars and trucks is detected using a travelling public transport vehicle. Different acquisition strategies are evaluated to establish a low cost application, capable of real time usage. Using the reflection of the infra-red emitter on number plates, traffic data information about the speed and the average density of oncoming traffic is acquired. The properties of the hardware prototype and the implementation of the software strategies are discussed and first research results are presented.