Robust Human Activity Recognition for Intelligent Transportation Systems Using Smartphone Sensors: A Position-Independent Approach

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This study explores Human Activity Recognition (HAR) using smartphone sensors to address the challenges posed by position-dependent datasets. We propose a position-independent system that leverages data from accelerometers, gyroscopes, linear accelerometers, and gravity sensors collected from smartphones placed either on the chest or in the left/right leg pocket. The performance of traditional machine learning algorithms (Decision Trees (DT), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Classifier (SVC), and XGBoost) is compared against deep learning models (Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Temporal Convolutional Networks (TCN), and Transformer models) under two sensor configurations. Our findings highlight that the Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) model consistently outperforms other models, particularly in the four-sensor non-overlapping configuration, achieving the highest accuracy of 97.70%. Deep learning models such as LSTM, GRU, and Transformer also demonstrate strong performance, showcasing their effectiveness in capturing temporal dependencies in HAR tasks. Traditional machine learning models, including RF and XGBoost, provide reasonable performance but do not match the accuracy of deep learning models. Additionally, incorporating data from linear accelerometers and gravity sensors led to slight improvements over using accelerometer and gyroscope data alone. This research enhances the recognition of passenger behaviors for intelligent transportation systems, contributing to more efficient congestion management and emergency response strategies.