A multiple loop vehicle detection system for heterogeneous and lane-less traffic

This paper presents a novel inductive loop sensor which detects large (e.g., bus) as well as small (e.g., bicycle) vehicles and help a traffic control management system in optimizing the best use of existing roads. To accomplish the sensing of large as well as a small vehicle, a multiple loop inductive sensor system is proposed. The proposed sensor structure not only senses and segregates the vehicle type as bicycle or motor cycle or car or bus but also enables accurate counting of the number of vehicles that too in a mixed traffic flow condition. A prototype of the multiple loop sensing system has been developed using a virtual instrumentation scheme and tested. Field tests indicate that the prototype successfully detected all types of vehicles and counted, correctly, the number of each type of vehicles. Thus the suitability of the proposed multi loop sensor system for any type of traffic has been established.