Application of Wireless Magnetic Sensors in the Urban Environment and Their Accuracy Verification
In a smart city, sensors are essential elements—the source of up-to-date traffic information. This article deals with magnetic sensors connected to wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They have a low investment cost, a long lifetime, and easy installation. However, it is still necessary to disturb the...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5740 |
| _version_ | 1797592615021969408 |
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| author | Kristián Čulík Vladimíra Štefancová Karol Hrudkay |
| author_facet | Kristián Čulík Vladimíra Štefancová Karol Hrudkay |
| author_sort | Kristián Čulík |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In a smart city, sensors are essential elements—the source of up-to-date traffic information. This article deals with magnetic sensors connected to wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They have a low investment cost, a long lifetime, and easy installation. However, it is still necessary to disturb the road surface locally during their installation. All road lanes to and from the city center of Žilina have sensors that send data at five-minute intervals. They send up-to-date information about the traffic flow’s intensity, speed, and composition. The LoRa network ensures the data transmission, but in the event of failure, the 4G/LTE modem realizes the backup transmission. The disadvantage of this application of sensors is their accuracy. The research task was to compare the outputs from the WSN with a traffic survey. The appropriate method for the traffic survey on the selected road profile is a video recording and speed measurement using the Sierzega radar. The results show distorted values, mainly for short intervals. The most accurate output from magnetic sensors is the number of vehicles. On the other hand, traffic flow composition and speed measurement are relatively inaccurate because it is not easy to identify vehicles based on dynamic length. Another problem with sensors is frequent communication outages, which cause an accumulation of values after the outage ends. The secondary objective of the paper is to describe the traffic sensor network and its publicly accessible database. In the end, there are several proposals for data usage. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:55:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0ae5e0027bef4f079e70f8a7f4b4dc27 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:55:38Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-0ae5e0027bef4f079e70f8a7f4b4dc272023-11-18T12:35:25ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-06-012312574010.3390/s23125740Application of Wireless Magnetic Sensors in the Urban Environment and Their Accuracy VerificationKristián Čulík0Vladimíra Štefancová1Karol Hrudkay2University Science Park, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 1, 01026 Žilina, SlovakiaDepartment of Railway Transport, Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 1, 01026 Žilina, SlovakiaUniversity Science Park, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 1, 01026 Žilina, SlovakiaIn a smart city, sensors are essential elements—the source of up-to-date traffic information. This article deals with magnetic sensors connected to wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They have a low investment cost, a long lifetime, and easy installation. However, it is still necessary to disturb the road surface locally during their installation. All road lanes to and from the city center of Žilina have sensors that send data at five-minute intervals. They send up-to-date information about the traffic flow’s intensity, speed, and composition. The LoRa network ensures the data transmission, but in the event of failure, the 4G/LTE modem realizes the backup transmission. The disadvantage of this application of sensors is their accuracy. The research task was to compare the outputs from the WSN with a traffic survey. The appropriate method for the traffic survey on the selected road profile is a video recording and speed measurement using the Sierzega radar. The results show distorted values, mainly for short intervals. The most accurate output from magnetic sensors is the number of vehicles. On the other hand, traffic flow composition and speed measurement are relatively inaccurate because it is not easy to identify vehicles based on dynamic length. Another problem with sensors is frequent communication outages, which cause an accumulation of values after the outage ends. The secondary objective of the paper is to describe the traffic sensor network and its publicly accessible database. In the end, there are several proposals for data usage.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5740sensorscityverificationtraffic surveycity transporttraffic |
| spellingShingle | Kristián Čulík Vladimíra Štefancová Karol Hrudkay Application of Wireless Magnetic Sensors in the Urban Environment and Their Accuracy Verification Sensors sensors city verification traffic survey city transport traffic |
| title | Application of Wireless Magnetic Sensors in the Urban Environment and Their Accuracy Verification |
| title_full | Application of Wireless Magnetic Sensors in the Urban Environment and Their Accuracy Verification |
| title_fullStr | Application of Wireless Magnetic Sensors in the Urban Environment and Their Accuracy Verification |
| title_full_unstemmed | Application of Wireless Magnetic Sensors in the Urban Environment and Their Accuracy Verification |
| title_short | Application of Wireless Magnetic Sensors in the Urban Environment and Their Accuracy Verification |
| title_sort | application of wireless magnetic sensors in the urban environment and their accuracy verification |
| topic | sensors city verification traffic survey city transport traffic |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5740 |
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