Road Vehicle Information Collection System Based on Distributed Fiber Optics Sensor

Abstract

A novel distributed fiber optics sensor used for road vehicle information collection system was proposed. Optical fiber was fixed on the road surface to be used as the sensing media. The vehicle information such as speed, vehicle type, vehicle weight and traffic flow can be obtained. To increase the sensitivity of such sensor, an optical Fabry-Perot (F-P) fiber interference was used. Sensing optical fiber was designed to be with a metal coating for fiber protection and high performance. Experiment results show that such distributed fiber optics sensor may be with a high performance in transportation area without digging when it is installed on the road surface.

Fiber-optic interferometric sensor for monitoring automobile and rail traffic

“…The well-chosen direction described in this publication is confirmed by the growing trend of many worldwide research organizations analyzing the use of fiber optic applications in sensory applications for sensing various physical quantities in traffic; please see the practical installation of the fiber-optic sensor in the Singapore underground on the website www.sciencedaily.com. From publicly available publications that deal with the use of interferometric types of sensors to detect vehicles, [13][14][15][16][17] can be stated. The authors present systems that are based on the implementation of interferometer measuring fibers into the road.…”

“…The sensing optical fiber was stored in a special metal protective casing and installed on the road's surface. The utility models [16,17] are associated with the detection of vehicles passing by on roads.…”

“…Weigh-in-motion (WIM) sensors are used to monitor a load of wheels and axles of vehicles traveling in multiple traffic lanes as well as a number of other important road traffic parameters (car speed, the distance between the axles, vehicle width, etc.). For example, [21,22] describe vehicle axle detection using fiber-optic sensors embedded in the road. The current topic is also the use of a fiber-optic distributed system for measuring mechanical stress.…”

Portable Optical Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor for Monitoring Traffic Density

“…These are sensors built into roadways for monitoring the load from vehicle wheels and axles, vehicle speed, measuring the distance between axles, measuring vehicle width, etc. This type of sensor [15][16][17][18] is often based on different types of fiber-optic interferometers. Due to their high sensitivity, interferometric sensors can also be placed non-destructively next to a road, as described by the authors of [19][20][21].…”

Fiber Optic Phase-Based Sensor for Detection of Axles and Wheels of Tram Vehicles

“…Paper [19] deals with an acoustic fiber-optic sensor for monitoring of the railway network from an extensive distance grounded on an interferometric connection. The paper [20] pointed out the use of a fiberoptic interferometer for the perimetric applications. The authors created a sensor based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer to detect vibration response generated by people moving around the sensor.…”