Corridor-Wide Surveillance Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (original) (raw)

A Survey of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Trafficc Monitoring

2013

The focus of this paper is on surveying UAV-based systems for traffic monitoring and management. Although there has been voluminous research on the subject, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are proven to be a viable and less timeconsuming alternative to real-time traffic monitoring and management, providing the eye-in-the-sky solution to the problem.

UAV-Based Traffic Analysis: A Universal Guiding Framework Based on Literature Survey

Transportation Research Procedia, 2017

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) commonly also known as drones are considered as one of the most dynamic and multidimensional emerging technologies of the modern era. Recently, this technology has found multiple applications in the transportation field as well; ranging from the traffic surveillance applications to the traffic network analysis for the overall improvement of the traffic flow and safety conditions. However, in order to conduct a UAV-based traffic study, an extremely diligent planning and execution is required followed by an optimal data analysis and interpretation procedure. This paper presents a universal guiding framework for ensuring a safe and efficient execution of a UAV-based study. It also explores the analysis steps that follow the execution of a drone flight. The framework based on the existing studies, is classified into the following seven components: (i) scope definition, (ii) flight planning, (iii) flight implementation, (iv) data acquisition, (v) data processing and analysis, (vi) data interpretation and (vii) optimized traffic application. The proposed framework provides a comprehensive guideline for an efficient conduction and completion of a drone-based traffic study. It gives an overview of the management in the context of the hardware and the software entities involved in the process. In this paper, an extensive yet systematic review of the existing traffic-related UAV studies is presented by moulding them in a step-by-step framework. With the significant increase in the number of UAV studies expected in the coming years, this literature review could become a useful resource for future researchers. The future research will mainly focus on the practical applications of the proposed guiding framework of the UAVbased traffic monitoring and analysis study.

Traffic data acquirement by unmanned aerial vehicle

European Journal of Remote Sensing

This paper presents a methodology aimed to acquire traffic flow data through the employment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The study is focused on the determination of driving behavior parameters of road users and on the reconstruction of traffic flow Origin/ Destination matrix. The methodology integrates UAV flights with video image processing technique, and the capability of geographic information systems, to represent spatiotemporal phenomena. In particular, analyzing different intersections, the attention of the authors is focused on users' gap acceptance in a naturalistic drivers' behavior condition (drivers are not influenced by the presence of instruments and operators on the roadway) and on the reconstruction of vehicle paths. Drivers' level of aggressiveness is determined by understanding how drivers decide that a gap is crossable and, consequently, how their behavior is critical in relation to a moving stream of traffic with serious road safety implications. The results of these experiments highlight the usefulness of the UAVs technology, that combined with video processing technique allows the capture of real traffic conditions with a good level of accuracy.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle–Based Traffic Analysis: Methodological Framework for Automated Multivehicle Trajectory Extraction

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2017

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly referred to as drones, are one of the most dynamic and multidimensional emerging technologies of the modern era. This technology has recently found multiple potential applications within the transportation field, ranging from traffic surveillance applications to traffic network analysis. To conduct a UAV-based traffic study, extremely diligent planning and execution are required followed by an optimal data analysis and interpretation procedure. In this study, however, the main focus was on the processing and analysis of UAV-acquired traffic footage. A detailed methodological framework for automated UAV video processing is proposed to extract the trajectories of multiple vehicles at a particular road segment. Such trajectories can be used either to extract various traffic parameters or to analyze traffic safety situations. The proposed framework, which provides comprehensive guidelines for an efficient processing and analysis of a UAV-based t...

Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Traffic Surveys

LOGI – Scientific Journal on Transport and Logistics

The paper deals with the topic of monitoring traffic using unmanned aerial vehicles. The main research goal was to test the possibility of using aerial vehicles for traffic engineering applications, especially for determining the traffic intensity on roads and for evaluating the data on traffic using video footage. The practical part of the paper focuses on the evaluation of data on traffic obtained by means of unmanned aerial vehicle at a selected intersection of roads. The data are evaluated using SW based on work with neural networks. A stationary system composed of an unmanned aircraft, camera system with a stabiliser, ground source with voltage converter, wire unwinding system and accessories were created by the staff of the ITB for the purpose of video recording the traffic from a 20-meter height. Such a tethered unmanned aerial system enabled a long-term operation in the air and a video recording lasting 1 hour at least.

Traffic Monitoring from the Perspective of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Applied Sciences

The paper is focused on the development of the experimental web-based solution for image processing from the perspective of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Specifically, the research is carried out as part of the broader study on drone utilization in traffic at the Technical University of Kosice. This contribution explores the possibility of using the UAV as a tool to detect the temporal state of the traffic in multiple locations. Road traffic analysis is enabled through the detection of vehicles from the user-defined region of interest (ROI). Its content then serves as the input for motion detection, followed by the detection of vehicles using the YOLOv4 model. Detection of other types of objects is possible, thus making the system more universal. The vehicle is tracked after recognition in two consecutive frames. The tracking algorithm is based on the calculation of the Euclidean distance and the intersection of the rectangles. The experimental verification yields lower hardware...

Unmanned Aerial Aircraft Systems for transportation engineering: Current practice and future challenges

International journal of transportation science and technology, 2016

Acquiring and processing video streams from static cameras has been proposed as one of 27 the most efficient tools for visualizing and gathering traffic information. With the latest 28 advances in technology and visual media, combined with the increased needs in dealing 29 with congestion more effectively and directly, the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems 30 (UAS) has emerged in the field of traffic engineering. In this paper, we review studies 31 and applications that incorporate UAS in transportation research and practice with the 32 aim to set the grounds from the proper understanding and implementation of UAS related 33 surveillance systems in transportation and traffic engineering. The studies reviewed are 34 categorized in different transportation engineering areas. Additional significant applica-35 tions from other research fields are also referenced to identify other promising applica-36 tions. Finally, issues and emerging challenges in both a conceptual and methodological 37 level are revealed and discussed.

Using single and multiple unmanned aerial vehicles for microscopic driver behaviour data collection at freeway interchange ramps

Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 2022

This paper presents a detailed methodological framework for collecting microscopic driver and vehicle behaviour data over a long road segment with an application to the entire stretch of a freeway ramp segment using single and multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The methodology allows users to collect reliable and complete trajectories of traffic movements in areas with challenging physical characteristics (long road segment, horizontal curvature, changing elevation, and presence of shadow), challenging traffic characteristics (high traffic volume, high speeds, and high-speed changes), and restrictive regulations (UAVs prohibited from hovering over the freeway or the right-of-way). Different UAV setups are recommended and can be used depending on the site conditions. Specific commercial software and procedures used to complete the data collection are explained. The methodology was applied at two ramps and verified with speed data acquired from differential GPS receivers using ...

Survey of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Traffic Monitoring

Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, 2014

In smart cities, vehicular applications require high computation capabilities and low-latency communication. Edge computing offers promising solutions for addressing these requirements because of several features, such as geo-distribution, mobility, low latency, heterogeneity, and support for real-time interactions. To employ network edges, existing fixed roadside units can be equipped with edge computing servers. Nevertheless, there are situations where additional infrastructure units are required to handle temporary high traffic loads during public events, unexpected weather conditions, or extreme traffic congestion. In such cases, the use of flying roadside units are carried by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which provide the required infrastructure for supporting traffic applications and improving the quality of service. UAVs can be dynamically deployed to act as mobile edges in accordance with traffic events and congestion conditions. The key benefits of this dynamic approach include: 1) the potential for characterizing the environmental requirements online and performing the deployment accordingly, and 2) the ability to move to another location when necessary. We propose a traffic-aware method for enabling the deployment of UAVs in vehicular environments. Simulation results show that our proposed method can achieve full network coverage under different scenarios without extra communication overhead or delay.

Comparison of Object Detection Algorithms Using Video and Thermal Images Collected from a UAS Platform: An Application of Drones in Traffic Management

ArXiv, 2021

There is a rapid growth of applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in traffic management, such as traffic surveillance, monitoring, and incident detection. However, the existing literature lacks solutions to real-time incident detection while addressing privacy issues in practice. This study explored real-time vehicle detection algorithms on both visual and infrared cameras and conducted experiments comparing their performance. Red Green Blue (RGB) videos and thermal images were collected from a UAS platform along highways in the Tampa, Florida, area. Experiments were designed to quantify the performance of a real-time background subtraction-based method in vehicle detection from a stationary camera on hovering UAVs under free-flow conditions. Several parameters were set in the experiments based on the geometry of the drone and sensor relative to the roadway. The results show that a background subtraction-based method can achieve good detection performance on RGB images (F1 ...