AUTOMATIC VEHICLE MONITORING SYSTEM

RESEARCH HAS BEEN CONDUCTED TO DEVELOP AND TEST ALTERNATIVE REAL-TIME AUTOMATIC VEHICLE MONITORING (AVM) SYSTEMS. THIS REPORT DESCRIBES THE TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS AND COST ESTIMATES FOR MAJOR COMPONENTS OF AN X-BAND SIGNPOST AVM DESIGNED BY RCA GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS. IN THIS SYSTEM, SHORT-RANGE X-BAND TRANSMITTERS ARE INSTALLED IN SIGNPOSTS ALONG BUS ROUTES WHICH RELAY LOCATION INFORMATION TO PROPERLY EQUIPPED VEHICLES AS THEY PASS BY. CHECKS ON SIGNAL STRENGTH AND PARITY ARE PERFORMED BY THE VEHICLE RECEIVER UNIT TO ENSURE THAT ONLY RELIABLE MESSAGES BASED ON STRONG SIGNALS WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR STORAGE. A TWO-WAY RADIO IS THEN EMPLOYED BY THE OPERATIONS CONTROL CENTER TO INTERROGATE THE VEHICLES AND OBTAIN LOCATION INFORMATION. ELEMENTS OF THE PROPSOED AVM SYSTEM ARE DESCRIBED WITH REFERENCE TO USER REQUIREMENTS AND APPLICATIONS (EG. POLICE EMERGENCY VEHICLES, BUSES, TAXICABS, TRUCKS, AND OTHER DISPATCH SERVICES); BASELINE SYSTEM CONFIGURATION (INCLUDING A SUMMARY OF THE X-BAND SIGNPOST LOCATION TECHNIQUE, COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER SYSTEM); VARIATIONS FROM BASELINE REQUIREMENTS; AND ADVANCED DESIGN OF SIGNPOST EQUIPMENT. ATTENTION IS ALSO GIVEN TO COST ESTIMATES FOR VARIOUS SYSTEM COMPONENTS. RESULTS OF AN OPERATIONAL URBAN ENVIRONMENT EXPERIMENT ARE PRESENTED IN DETAIL. TESTS OF LOCATION ACCURACY, INTERFERENCE AND OTHER SYSTEM PARAMETERS ARE DISCUSSED. THE EXPERIMENTS WERE PERFORMED IN A SPECIALLY-INSTRUMENTED SECTION OF DOWNTOWN PHILADELPHIA AS WELL AS SPECIAL AREAS IN PROXIMITY TO AIRPORT RADAR TRANSMITTERS, POWER GENERATORS, AND TALL BUILDINGS. HIGH SPEED TESTS WERE ALSO PERFORMED IN OPEN AREAS. THE AUTHORS CONCLUDE THAT THE X-BAND AVM PERFORMED SATISFACTORILY, WITH ACCEPTABLE AVERAGE LOCATION ERRORS. /UMTA/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • DOT-UT-10023 UMTA-IT-06-0048-73-1
• Corporate Authors:

  Radio Corporation of America

  /Communications Systems Division
  ,   United States 
• Authors:
  • Liquori, A
  • Kaplan, G
  • Haber, C
• Publication Date: 1973-3

Media Info

• Pagination: 287 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accuracy; Automatic vehicle monitoring; Benefit cost analysis; Communication; Location; Urban areas
• Old TRIS Terms: Two way communication
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00228295
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Urban Mass Transportation Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: Final Rpt
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 16 1973 12:00AM