Crowdsourced Roadwork Detection Using Vehicle Sensor Data
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for detecting roadworks, such as those used in navigation systems, often provide inadequate or inaccurate information due to organizational issues and changes in roadwork progress, leading to inaccuracies in route planning and travel time calculations.
Innovation Solution
A method that utilizes sensors in vehicles to detect speed restriction road signs and transmit data to a central unit, combining information from multiple vehicles to determine the probable position of roadworks through crowd-sourcing, and uses GNSS, imaging, or radar sensors to verify the presence and extent of roadworks based on speed and trajectory changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If real-time traffic information services are used to provide roadworks data, then route planning and journey time calculation can be performed, but the accuracy and actuality of the information deteriorates due to organizational circumstances and progress of work variations
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously collecting real-world roadworks data from multiple vehicles equipped with sensors and cameras, comparing it with planned roadworks information, and updating the real-time traffic information services with verified actual conditions. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures the information remains accurate and current despite organizational delays or work progress variations.
Solution Approach 2:
Vehicles autonomously detect and report roadworks conditions using their own sensors and cameras without requiring manual reporting or centralized monitoring. The system enables road users to self-generate and contribute data about actual roadworks conditions, which is then aggregated and verified to improve overall information accuracy.
2Measurement precision
If roadworks information is updated in real-time, then route planning accuracy improves, but the complexity of data collection and verification increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges detection capabilities from multiple vehicles into a unified roadworks monitoring network. By combining data from numerous vehicles with sensors and cameras, the system achieves high measurement precision for roadworks position and extent while distributing the detection complexity across many simple vehicle units rather than requiring a single complex centralized system.
Solution Approach 2:
The detection system uses multi-functional sensors and cameras that serve multiple purposes: detecting road signs, capturing roadworks conditions, determining vehicle position, and monitoring traffic flow. This universality reduces overall system complexity by using the same hardware for multiple detection tasks rather than requiring specialized equipment for each function.
3Reliability
If multiple sensors and vehicles are used to detect roadworks, then data accuracy improves, but the quantity of data to be processed increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential and relevant data elements from the large volume of raw sensor data collected by multiple vehicles. Instead of processing all captured images and sensor readings, the system extracts key information such as roadworks position, extent, and type, filtering out redundant data while maintaining high detection reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates simplified digital representations or models of roadworks conditions based on data from multiple vehicles. Rather than storing and processing all original sensor data, it generates consolidated data models that capture the essential roadworks information, reducing data volume while preserving reliability for route planning purposes.
Data Source
AI summary
A method detects roadworks. The method includes steps of: receiving a position of at least one first road sign that indicates the reduction of the maximum permissible top speed to a first vehicle on the current road section on which the first vehicle is travelling by way of a sensor fitted to the first vehicle; receiving a position of at least one second road sign that lifts the reduction of the maximum permissible top speed of a vehicle on the current road section on which the vehicle is travelling by way of the sensor fitted to the first vehicle; determining a first assumption for the position of roadworks from the first position of the at least one first road sign and the first position of the at least one second road sign; and determining a probable position of the roadworks by comparing the first assumption of the position of the roadworks with at least one second assumption that has been determined by at least one second vehicle.