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)
1.9.5 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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