FYNet: A Novel Architecture for Real-time Vehicle Attributes Detection and Tracking on a Multi Lane Highway

The Highway Capacity Manual provides a means for evaluating level of service on freeways, highways, and urban streets. Presently, the Highway Capacity Manual methodology is not able to evaluate level of service on freeways with free-flow speeds greater than 75 mph or multilane highways with free-flow speeds greater than 60 mph, and many states now have facilities with posted speed limits that exceed these free-flow speeds. Recent research, conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), developed speed prediction equations for uninterrupted flow facilities with higher posted speed limits. From these equations, this paper develops procedures for calculating free-flow speed on facilities with higher posted speed limits and develops methods for estimating level of service on freeways with free-flow speeds up to 85 mph and multi lane highways with free-flow speeds up to 80 mph. For freeways, the recommendations call for utilizing the TTI speed prediction equations to calculate free-flow speed and using the calculated free-flow speeds to determine level of service from speed–flow curves developed within this paper. For multilane highways, recommendations call for utilizing the TTI speed prediction equations to calculate base free-flow speed, which is part of the equation for calculating free-flow speed, and then using the calculated free-flow speed to determine level of service from speed–flow curves developed within this paper. To aid practitioners, step-by-step procedures are provided for applying the TTI speed prediction equations within the Highway Capacity Manual methodology.

In this paper, we present analytical models for the probability density function (PDF) of link life time in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), formed on both single lane as well as multi lane highways. Assuming free flow traffic state and Gaussian distributed vehicle speed, we extensively investigate the impact of vehicle mobility, vehicle density and transmission range on the link life time PDF and the mean link life time in VANETs. Our analytical and simulation results suggest that in the free-flow traffic state, exponential distribution with appropriate parametrization is a good approximation for the link life time PDF. We perform the Kolmogorov---Smirnov goodness-of-fit test to ascertain the validity of this claim.

Diffractors are an innovative way of shielding noise from e.g. motorways by bending the propagation direction of sound waves upwards and hence creating an acoustic shadow area along the road. The bending upwards is done by the interaction of the road noise with a series of slits, all parallel to the road but with varying depths for varying resonance frequencies. This principle has been invented about 10 years ago and has since then been tested with temporary and permanent constructions. The slits can be integrated in the ground, but can also be put on a low (0,5 - 1 m) screen for enhancing the performance at short distance. The Belgian Road Research Centre has carried out several measurement campaigns at different diffractor set ups on low screens. The measurements were of the "Controlled Pass-By" type yielding consistent results. An overview is given of the findings since the first measurement, including the new results obtained along a ring road in the Dutch town of Amersfoort in 2022, where for the first time such a device was constructed along a 2 x 2 lane, showing the performance in case the noise source is at a larger distance from the diffractor.

Traffic flow characteristics like volume, density and speed are used to calculated and validate current simulation models. However, these modes do not validate microscopic characteristic like lane changing behavior of drivers. To get realistic results in terms of each lane of a freeway, the frequency of lane changes should be accounted for in validation of simulation models. A study of lane change frequency on a multilane freeway on I-80 in California is presented in this paper. A half mile section with five lanes, an on-ramp and a shoulder lane drop is studied. The number of lane changes in terms of origin and destination lanes and their percentages with respect to the entrance volume are presented for each freeway lane. Comparisons of lane change frequency towards the shoulder lane and towards the median lane are carried out. The lane changes are classified into anticipatory, mandatory and discretionary lane changes on the basis of observed data. Due to mandatory lane changes, near the vicinity of entrance gore, a zone of intense lane change has been identified. This zone is prone to higher frequency of accidents as a result of higher number of conflicting points, As the shoulder lane drops, a late mandatory merge is identified downstream of the section. This late mandatory merge accounts for about 29% of the total vehicles moving from the shoulder lane to the adjacent lane.

The time headway of vehicles is an important microscopic traffic flow parameter which affects the safety and capacity of highway facilities such as freeways and multi-lane highways. The present paper intends to provide a report on the results of a study aimed at investigating the effect of the lane position on time headway distributions within the high levels of traffic flow. The main issue of this study is to assess the driver's behavior at different highway lanes based on a headway distribution analysis. The study was conducted in the city of Isfahan, Iran. Shahid Kharrazi six-lane highway was selected for collecting the field headway data. The under-study lanes consisted of passing and middle lanes. The appropriate models of headway distributions were selected using a methodology based on Chi-Square test for each lane. Using the selected models, the headway distribution diagrams were predicted for high levels of traffic flow in both the passing and middle lanes and the relationship between statistical criteria of the models and the driver's behaviors were analyzed. The results certify that the appropriate model for the passing lane is different than the one for the middle lane. This is because of a different behavioral operation of drivers which is affected by specific conditions of each lane. Through car-following conditions in the passing lane, a large number of drivers adopt unsafe headways. This shows high risk-ability of driver population which led to considerably differences in capacities and statistical distribution models of two lanes.

In this paper, we introduce a novel stereo-monocular fusion approach to on-road localization and tracking of vehicles. Utilizing a calibrated stereo-vision rig, the proposed approach combines monocular detection with stereo-vision for on-road vehicle localization and tracking for driver assistance. The system initially acquires synchronized monocular frames and calculates depth maps from the stereo rig. The system then detects vehicles in the image plane using an active learning-based monocular vision approach. Using the image coordinates of detected vehicles, the system then localizes the vehicles in real-world coordinates using the calculated depth map. The vehicles are tracked both in the image plane, and in real-world coordinates, fusing information from both the monocular and stereo modalities. Vehicles' states are estimated and tracked using Kalman filtering. Quantitative analysis of tracks is provided. The full system takes 46ms to process a single frame.

Different geometric parameters (e.g., radius, curve length and preceding tangent length) affects vehicle speed in horizontal curve. Inconsistency in driver’s speed selection may lead to unsafe situation at horizontal curve. The differences between operating speed of successive elements and deviation with design speed of single element have been used as a measure to evaluate geometric design consistency and safety. Researchers have studied speed behaviour considering strong lane discipline to predict preferred vehicle operating speed in two lane highways. However, studies considering weak lane discipline to predict operating speed for multi-lane divided highways are limited. Therefore, in this study, passenger car and heavy vehicle speed data at the starting and centre of ten horizontal curves in a four-lane divided highway are collected. The 85th percentile speeds at eight sites are analysed to develop a linear speed prediction model. Curve length is found to be the only explanatory variable in the model developed for location at the starting of a curve. Whereas, radius is found as the explanatory variable to predict speed at centre of the curve. The developed models are validated at two different sites. Statistical analysis shows that I-value is lesser than 0.2, which confirms the acceptability of the proposed model.

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is a technique to increase the capacity of a fiber optic link by simultaneously transmitting multiple channels over a single fiber. WDM has been extensively used in commercial and military telecommunication networks. Recently, the technology has become small enough, cheap enough, and rugged enough for application in military vehicles. Fiber optic WDM communication systems offer unique benefits for military vehicle application including near infinite growth capacity and significant weight and volume savings. We have conducted studies for applying fiber optic WDM networks as the primary data bus architecture for future combat vehicles. These studies indicate significant weight, volume, and connector savings along with tremendous performance improvement over conventional copper based approach. We have also assembled laboratory test systems to prove the viability of the technology and demonstrate the performance improvement. Multiple independent channels with different protocols and data rates can be carried on the same fiber thus eliminating duplicate wiring. Each protocol can be optimized for the application need whether it be for high speed data transfer, real time vehicle control, dedicated always-on bandwidth, ultralow latency, etc. Advantages of WDM fiber include no EMI emissions, no EMI susceptibility, and EMP resistance; near infinite capacity growth such that a vehicle never needs rewiring, low latency ultra high bandwidth uncompressed video distribution bus architectures. Fiber optic WDM networks offer tremendous benefit to field commanders in network centric operations. By providing unlimited bandwidth, the commander maintains full situational awareness.

A systematic approach is developed to identify the bivariate relation of two fundamental traffic variables, traffic volume and density, from single-loop detector data. The approach is motivated by the observation of a peculiar feature of traffic fluctuations. That is, in a short time, traffic usually experiences fluctuations without a significant change in speed. This fact is used to define equilibrium in a new manner, and a mixed integer programming approach is proposed for constructing a piecewise linear fundamental diagram (FD) accordingly. By construction, the proposed method is data adaptive and optimal in the sense of least absolute deviation. This method is used to perform a case study with data from one section of a multilane freeway. The results indicate that both capacity drop and concave–convex FD shapes abound in practice. Differences in traffic behavior across freeway lanes and along freeway sections revealed through the FD are discussed.

A model is proposed for the traffic flow through a fixed cycle traffic signal on a narrow two lane highway. The average flows in the two opposing lanes are computed when the queues are arbitrarily long assuming that left turns are permitted and occur with fixed probabilities in the two lanes. It is found that the existence of left turns tends to favor short cycles of the light and, under certain conditions, the competition between this effect and the obvious advantages of the long cycle light gives rise to an optimal cycle time at which the average flows have a maximum value. Some simple models for multilane highways are also considered and show optimal cycle times.

There is a significant need to improve the highway safety during roadway planning, design and operations in developing countries like India. To receive appropriate consideration, safety needs to be dealt objectively within the transportation planning and highway design processes. Lack of available tools is a deterrent to quantify safety of a transportation facility during the planning or highway design process. The objective of this paper is to develop safety performance functions considering various elements involved in the planning, design and operation of a section on four-lane National Highway (NH)-58 located in the state of Uttarakhand, India. The mixed traffic on Indian multilane highways comes with a lot of variability within, ranging from different vehicle types to different driver characteristics. This could result in variability in the effect of explanatory variables on crashes across locations. Hence, explanatory variables for highway segment safety analysis considered were geometric ch...

Our experimental study measures the effects of a stationary and a moving vehicle on the 22 MHz 802.11b and the 20 MHz 802.11a channel using a vector network analyzer (VNA). The experiments with the vehicle slowly passing by a transmitter-receiver pair correspond to a case study where the communication session occurs in a single lane of a multi-lane highway with a vehicle moving in the adjacent lane. We propose a corresponding ray-tracing model based on the bistatic radar equation which predicts the link power for a given car geometry and the position of transmit and receive antennas. The model converts a near field propagation problem to a superposition of a set of far field sub-problems by representing the vehicle as a set of (sufficiently small) ideally conductive flat tiles. Hence, the channel transfer function is determined as a sum of the line-of-sight (LOS) component and the rays reflected from the tiles. The ray strengths are a function of the effective tile radar cross sections (RCSs). The carefully selected RCS model allows for a good match between the measurements and the resulting ray-tracing model. Both the model and the measurements illustrate that the change in the propagation geometry on the order of centimeters, created by a car passing in the proximity (on the order of meters), results in the change of the signal power at the receiver on the order of several decibels.

Truck lane restriction is one of the most common highway lane management strategies; it ensures that heavy vehicles mostly use the outer lanes of a multilane highway. A higher percentage of...

Traditionally, the 85th percentile of observed speeds is used to represent the operating speed associated with a specific site with certain geometric features. The presence of sunlight enhances the vision of drivers during daytime while visibility usually degrades during nighttime, especially on rural roads where no street lighting exists, and drivers would depend solely on their vehicle headlights. Visibility degradation is a safety concern which is magnified on horizontal curves. The objective of this study, therefore, is to compare operating speed in daytime and nighttime conditions on both tangent sections and horizontal curves. The analysis made use of spot speed data collected on horizontal curves of two major rural multilane highway in Egypt. Spot speed data were collected using speed guns during daytime and nighttime. The spot speed data were used to calculate the mean speed, variance of speed, and the 85th percentile speed. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the speeds in daytime and nighttime. For most cases, it was shown that no significant difference existed in speed for daytime and nighttime. This was mainly attributed to the generous design features of the highway elements (e.g., large radii of horizontal curves, wide lanes, etc.). An attempt was made to develop operating speed models to see which variables impact speed during daytime. The results of operating speed models’ development were deemed inappropriate due to the lack of variability in speeds.

YOLOv3, the third version of the YOLO family, performs significantly well on object detection. Nevertheless, using YOLOv3 for real-time vehicle and pedestrian detection on unmanned vehicles with limited computing resources is still a very big challenge due to the high computational complexity of YOLOv3. In this paper, a new network architecture for vehicle and pedestrian detection based on YOLOv3 is proposed which is named as Lightweight-YOLOv3. Three improvements are presented in Lightweight-YOLOv3. Firstly, to reduce the model size and computing complexity, channel and layer pruning is proposed by introducing L1 regularization on the batch normalization layer. Thus, unimportant channels and layers are recognized and removed. Secondly, to reduce the missed detection in crowded scenes and locate targets better, the MergeSoft-NMS which merges the bounding boxes with high overlap is designed based on Soft-NMS. Thirdly, considering the obvious aspect ratio of vehicle and pedestrian, the anchor boxes which are designed based on multi-class is redesigned for better vehicle and pedestrian matching and localization in Lightweight-YOLOv3. In the experiment, compared with YOLOv3 and YOLOv3-tiny, Lightweight-YOLOv3 which performs well on detection accuracy and speed is effective and compact for vehicle and pedestrian detection.