With the significant technological growth that affected autonomous vehicles in the last decade, several consequences occurred as: human factor exclusion, entry and exit manoeuvres precision from roundabouts, and headway reduction. In this paper, it was carried out a microsimulation approach study that aims to evaluate benefits in terms of safety obtained with flower roundabouts in a scenario where traffic is characterized by conventional vehicles “CVs” and Connected Autonomous Vehicles “CAVs”. This study focused on the evaluation of CAVs and CVs operation with the presence of the so called “weak users” or rather, pedestrians and bikes. Then, simulated scenarios were characterized by the presence of zebra-crossings in main roads, positioned at 20 m from circulatory carriageway edges. Micro simulation choice is due to the absence of survey data collection because the presence of CAVs in ordinary traffic is still minimal. The micro simulation was carried out through VISSIM, so it was operated with a specific methodological path, consisting, in the application, of O–D matrix based on real cases, in order to achieve an assessment of potential conflicts in relation with the increase in CAVs. Simulation results showed that higher safety levels were achieved for special cases of O–D distribution and with CAVs present. Finally, considering crash absence in results related to CAVs presence, safety interventions of such roundabout types have to be thorough. There were 10 O/D matrices analysed through VISSIM considering parameters as: average tail length, maximum tail length, average speed, vehicles, and number of stops quantity. As reported in the conclusion section, O/D matrices that showed minimum conflicts and maximum dynamic performances were identified.
This paper describes the development of a modular unmanned aerial vehicle for the detection and eradication of weeds on farmland. Precision agriculture entails solving the problem of poor agricultural yield due to competition for nutrients by weeds and provides a faster approach to eliminating the problematic weeds using emerging technologies. This research has addressed the aforementioned problem. A quadcopter was built, and components were assembled with light-weight materials. The system consists of the electric motor, electronic speed controller, propellers, frame, lithium polymer (li-po) battery, flight controller, a global positioning system (GPS), and receiver. A sprayer module which consists of a relay, Raspberry Pi 3, spray pump, 12 V DC source, water hose, and the tank was built. It operated in such a way that when a weed is detected based on the deep learning algorithms deployed on the Raspberry Pi, general purpose input/output (GPIO) 17 or GPIO 18 (of the Raspberry Pi) were activated to supply 3.3 V, which turned on a DC relay to spray herbicides accordingly. The sprayer module was mounted on the quadcopter and from the test-running operation conducted, broadleaf and grass weeds were accurately detected and the spraying of herbicides according to the weed type occurred in less than a second.
In the last few years, there has been a significant rise in the number of private vehicles ownership, migration of people from rural areas to urban cities, and the rise in the number of under-maintained freeways; all these have added to the perennial problem of traffic congestion. Traffic flow prediction has been recognized as the solution in alleviating and reducing the problem of traffic congestion. In this research, we developed an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system trained by particle swarm optimization (ANFIS-PSO) by performing an evaluative performance of the model through traffic flow modelling of vehicles on five freeways (N1,N3,N12,N14 and N17) using South Africa Transportation System as a case study. Six hundred and fifty (650) traffic data were collected using inductive loop detectors and video cameras from the five freeways. The traffic data used for developing these models comprises traffic volume, traffic density, speed of vehicles, time, and different types of vehicles. The traffic data were divided into 70% and 30% for the training and validation of the model. The model results show a positively correlated optimal performance between the inputs and the output with a regression value R2 of 0.9978 and 0.9860 for the training and testing. The result of this research shows that the soft computing model ANFIS-PSO used in this research can model vehicular traffic flow on freeways. Furthermore, the evidence from this research suggests that the on-peak and off-peak hours are significant determinants of vehicular traffic flow on freeways. The modelling approach developed in this research will assist urban planners in developing practical ways to tackle traffic congestion and assist motorists and pedestrians in travel behaviour decision-making. Finally, the approach used in this study will assist transportation engineers in making constructive and safety dependent guidelines for drivers and pedestrians on freeways.
The accurate and effective prediction of the traffic flow of vehicles plays a significant role in the construction and planning of signalized road intersections. The application of artificially intelligent predictive models in the prediction of the performance of traffic flow has yielded positive results. However, much uncertainty still exists in the determination of which artificial intelligence methods effectively resolve traffic congestion issues, especially from the perspective of the traffic flow of vehicles at a four-way signalized road intersection. A hybrid algorithm, an artificial neural network trained by a particle swarm optimization model (ANN-PSO), and a heuristic Artificial Neural Network model (ANN) were compared in the prediction of the flow of traffic of vehicles using the South Africa transportation system as a case study. Two hundred and fifty-nine (259) traffic datasets were obtained from the South African road network using inductive loop detectors, video cameras, and GPS-controlled equipment. For the ANN and ANN-PSO training and testing, 219 traffic data were used for the training, and 40 were used for the testing of the ANN-PSO model, while training (160), testing (40), and validation (59) was used for the ANN. The ANN result presented a logistic sigmoid transfer function with a 13–6–1 model and a testing R2 of 0.99169 compared to the ANN-PSO result, which showed a testing performance of R2 0.99710. This result shows that the ANN-PSO model is more efficient and effective than the ANN model in the prediction of the traffic flow of vehicles at a four-way signalized road intersection. Furthermore, the ANN and ANN-PSO models are robust enough to predict traffic flow due to their better testing performance. The modelling approaches proposed in this study will assist transportation engineers and urban planners in designing a traffic control system for traffic lights at four-way signalized road intersections. Finally, the results of this research will assist transportation engineers and traffic controllers in providing traffic flow information and travel guidance for motorists and pedestrians in the optimization of their travel time decision-making.
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