Task Order 6328
Traffic Operations Research
Optimal Sensor Requirements
Dr. Alex Bayen
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
J.D. Margulici
Senior Development Engineer, California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT)
Dr. Jeff Ban
Assistant Research Engineer, CCIT
Dr. Lianyu Chu
Research Engineer, CCIT
Dr. Henry Liu
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering
University of Minnesota
Stephen Albert
Director, Western Transportation Institute (WTI)
Pat McGowen
Research Engineer, WTI
Christopher Strong
Research Engineer,WTI
Summary
The goal of this project is to develop a tool for the systematic investigation of traffic sensor deployment in transportation networks. From this tool, optimal strategies and guidelines for sensor deployments will be determined. The Caltrans operations staff will then be provided with the practical means to assess, justify, and plan traffic sensors deployment on highways. This project builds on three other projects: PATH TO 6303 (Optimal Use of CMS for Displaying Travel Times), CCIT TO 1002 (Emerging Technologies for Traffic Detection), and PATH TO 5320 (Highway Traffic Data Sensitivity Analysis).
First, the project will identify critical traffic management and traveler information applications to be studied, including incident detection, travel time estimates, and ramp metering. Quality measures will then link sensor deployment strategies to application requirements.
Rural areas and urban will then be separated into two studies, the rural managed by the Western Transportation Institute in Montana and the urban managed by all other entities.
Different sensor types (ranging from loop detectors to presence detectors to speed and range detectors to probe detectors), costs, and performances will be employed for these applications. Analytical methodologies will link these sensor configurations to application quality measures in each of the hypothetical corridors (rural, urban, etc.).
From there, the micro-traffic simulation engine Paramics and other macro-simulation techniques (such as CTM) will be used to generate vehicle trajectories and other performance measures. This requires the development of add-on tools to Paramics. The team will also develop Matlab routines to study optimal sensor deployment strategies based on certain quality measures. The analysis will result in the optimal deployment requirements for each application and corridor type.
Related PATH Articles/Journals
Ban, X., Herring, R., Margulici, J.D., and Alex Bayen (2007) "Optimal sensor placement for freeway travel time estimation." Extended abstract submitted to the 18th International Symposium on Traffic and Transportation Theory (ISTTT).
Ban, X., Herring, R., and Margulici, J.D. (2007) "Optimal sensor deployment for providing freeway travel times." Technical Report.
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