Application of drone technology and video processing in traffic engineering

Drone technology has been used in different fields and for different purposes. Application of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in traffic and transport engineering has become increasingly popular in recent years. Traffic monitoring from drones overcomes the limitations of traditional methods of traffic data collection due to its ability to cover small to medium sized areas with the best possible view of the study area, monitoring the traffic flow and providing the opportunity to undertake traffic analysis using advanced video processing tools and extract the key traffic parameters such as classified traffic flow, speed, acceleration, saturation flow, gap and follow up times. The combination of drone technology for data collection and advanced video processing tools would assist traffic engineers and modellers to calibrate their models with accurate traffic parameters. A generic and robust methodology for visual detection and tracking of the road vehicles from aerial video sequences and developing a fully autonomous UAV system for traffic monitoring and analysis would outperform the traditional technologies (manual traffic counts, inductive loop detectors, static videos, radar, ultra-sound technologies, etc.). This paper aims to explain how these advanced technologies can be used to perform automatic visual inspection of traffic activities within a modelling study area and extract the key traffic parameters to calibrate the traffic and transport models. As case studies the application of the drone technology for a number of projects in Perth has been discussed in this paper.

• Record URL:
  https://www.aitpm.com.au/
• Corporate Authors:

  Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management (AITPM)

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Rasouli, M
• Conference:
  • Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management (AITPM) National Conference, 2018, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
• Publication Date: 2018-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: AITPM National Traffic and Transport Conference, 24-27 August 2018, Perth

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Data collection; Digital video; Drone radar; Drones; Traffic engineering
• Geographic Terms: Western Australia
• ATRI Terms: Case study; Data collection; Drone; Traffic engineering; Video
• Subject Areas: Aviation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01704343
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: May 2 2019 2:21PM