Extruded segmented sensor for road traffic classification

Individual vehicle information, especially vehicle classification, play a key role in road traffic measurement. Vehicle information produced by the traffic measuring sensors is used to estimate pavement wear, traffic patterns, and to plan maintenance and improvement of roads. Traffic measuring sensors such as inductive loop and piezoelectric sensor senses number of axles and the distance between axles for vehicle classification. However, classification errors occur in distinguishing class 3 (2-axle, 4-tire; e.g. pickup truck) and class 5 (2-axle, 5-tire) vehicles. To overcome these misclassifications and to improve the efficiency of sensor, a new extruded segmented sensor design is proposed. Designs of 16-segment and 49-segments sensors with their frequency response analysis are presented in this paper to classify vehicles based on tire width/ footprint.