Incident Detection System
On many modern freeways the roads authorities will operate an Incident Detection System (IDS) that connects sensors in the road surface to the traffic monitoring computer systems remotely to sense if there are changes to the traffic flow along the roads. Such is the case in Victoria and along the recently upgraded Princes Freeway between Altona and Werribee.
In conjunction with Tyco Projects group, AA Radio supplied a system to work in with the road sensors installed by Tyco. Every kilometre along the freeway, as well at every entry and exit ramp, there are sensors installed in the road surface. These sensors can detect the amount on traffic in that particular traffic lane, as well as the speed of the vehicles.
This information is fed into the main traffic control computer for VicRoads and the algorithms in the computer system will cause an alert to traffic monitoring staff if the traffic flow or speeds change outside of normal operations. In conjunction with CCTV monitoring the operators can then determine the cause of the change in the traffic flow and take corrective action as required.
With the Princes Freeway system, AA Radio installed RF Innovations radio modems at each of the twenty-one sensor locations and these fed to a central radio site, where the data was then sent to the main computer location via leased lines. Each of the sensor sites have their own solar power and batteries so the system is independent of outside factors, even the central radio site has battery back-up and a stand-by modem configured for immediate operation if the main unit should fail.
In over three years of operation the system has proven to be highly reliable and is yet another example of AA Radio Services being able to design, supply, install, commission and maintain radio systems to suit virtually any application.