Student Projects

vinish · ‎10-08-2012

ABSTRACT

PROJECT VISION:

The construction, extension, maintenance and operating costs of highways, roads, bridges and tunnels were collected directly or indirectly. In the older indirect method, the expenses are compensated either by tax payment on fuel or by budget allocation from the national income. The shortcoming of this method is that a number of tax payers, who do not use some of the roads and carriageways, have to pay extra money. However, in the other system, called direct method, the tolls are taken directly from the drivers passing that road or street.One of the biggest complaints of motorists using toll roads is the congestion and delay caused by stopping to pay at the tollbooths. Many toll authorities have searched for ways to improve the toll collection process. Our project aims in eliminating the delay in toll collection by collecting the toll electronically(ETC). ETC determines whether the cars passing are enrolled in the program, alerts enforcers for those that are not, and electronically debits the accounts of registered car owners without requiring them to stop.

APPLICATION AREAS:

ETC is generally broken up into three pieces

Automatic vehicle identification (AVI) , Automatic vehicle classification (AVC), and Violation enforcement (VE).

FEASIBILITY:

The fast image acquisition from the mobile unit (robot) due to high data rates of PXI system makes it more feasible when time plays an important factor in taking decisions on tasks to be performed. The system is flexible to be updated with new technology as it is integration of different modules. Its multi-functionality and relatively low cost compared to other existing military assistance systems makes it more feasible. Moreover it has the flexibility of being used as semi-autonomous as well as autonomous robot.

BENEFITS: The benefits because of ETC for the driver, toll operator and vehicle owners are listed

below.

Some of the benefits for drivers include :

fewer and shorter queues at toll plazas by increasing toll booth service rates;
faster and more efficient service—the customer does not need to stop or have toll fees on hand;
the ability to pay by keeping a balance on the customer’s account or charging a registered credit card;
Mailed toll statements—the customer no longer has to request a receipt.
Reduced accident rates/ improved safety because of less slow-and-go driving.

Some of the benefits for toll operators include:

lowered toll collection costs;
better audit control by centralized user accounts;
Expanded capacity without being required to build more infrastructure.

For everyone, some of the benefits of ETC include:

fuel savings;
reduced mobile emissions by reducing or eliminating deceleration, waiting times, and acceleration;
Possible reduced drain on public monies, if the system is more self-sustaining or if the system was built/run via a public-private partnership arrangement.

IMPLEMENTATION:

Our project comprises of four units:

Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI)
Automatic Vehicle Classification (AVC)
Transaction Processing
Violation Enforcement

AUTOMATIC VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION(AVI):

Automated vehicle identification (AVI) is the process of determining the identity of a vehicle subject to tolls. The majority of toll facilities record the passage of vehicles through a limited number of toll gates. At such facilities, our task is then to identify the vehicle in the gate area. Our current AVI systems rely on radio-frequency identification, where an antenna at the toll gate communicates with a transponder on the vehicle via Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC). RFID tags have proved to have excellent accuracy, and can be read at highway speeds. The AVI component of the our system consists of the RFID transponder is located in the automobile and the equipment to communicate with the transponder located at the toll plaza. While the toll plaza RFID transponder equipment is generally called a reader, in most ETC systems it can also write information to the vehicle transponder such as the time, date, location and vehicle class of the transaction.

AUTOMATIC VEHICLE CLASSIFICATION(AVC):

Automated vehicle classification is closely related to automated vehicle identification (AVI). Most toll facilities charge different rates for different types of vehicles, making it necessary to distinguish the vehicles passing through the toll facility. Here camera is used to classify the vehicles by processing the images. Along with camera(image processing) infrared beam is used to classify the vehicle so that its efficiency increases. The vehicles are classified into four catagories based on their length and height.

TRANSACTION PROCESSING:

Transaction processing deals with maintaining customer accounts, posting toll transactions and customer payments to the accounts, and handling customer inquiries. In many aspects, the transaction processing function resembles banking. The entire information of the customer is stored in a database which includes name, RFID tag number, balance amount. When RFID reader detects the tag, the corresponding customer information is fetched from the database. Depending on the type of vehicle classified, the amount is deduced form balance amount. After the completion of transaction, the depleted amount and the updated balance amount details are forwarded to the customer by sending message to his/her mobile phone.

VIOLATION ENFORCEMENT:

A violation enforcement system(VES) is useful in reducing unpaid tolls, as an unmanned toll gate otherwise represents a tempting target for toll evasion. Several methods can be used to deter toll violaters. Police patrols at toll gates can be highly effective but the expense of police patrols makes their use on a continuous basis impractical, such that probability of being stopped is likely to be low enough as to be an insufficient deterrant

Automatic number plate recognition(ANPR),while rarely used as the primary vehicle identification method,is more commonly used in violation enforcement.This process is triggered by the instance of failure of vehicle identification system.A well versed high resolution camera is mounted at a suitable height to grab the front portion of the vehicle .Thus the characters of the number plate can be extracted through vision based edge detection algorithm and OCR recognition process. This information is transferred to a road side monitoring unit and the legal action is duly taken.

PROCEDURE: