Use of Light detection and range (lidar) technology is growing in sectors such as automotive, smart farming, smart industry, surveying and mapping as well as in smart cities.
In a smart city plan, usage of lidar will help in identifying types of vehicles, in monitoring speed, which ultimately will provide greater understanding of traffic problems as well as improve safety on roads.
Recently, Velodyne Lidar, Inc. has announced that the city of Rรผsselsheim am Main, Germany, has selected Velodyne to deliver an Intelligent Infrastructure Solution to create a city-wide system for truck passage control. Rรผsselsheim will use Velodyneโs lidar-based full stack solution for digital monitoring and reporting of trucks that are banned on city streets to ease road congestion and air and noise pollution.
How lidar technology can digitize municipal transport systems?
Lidar is one of the crucial technologies that are finding space in smart city infrastructure deployment because these sensors provide spatial data with immunity to low light conditions while maintaining privacy protections. This means the sensors gather information about the city during the day as well as at night, and that’s something the cameras are far from accomplishing.
Apart from traffic monitoring, lidar can also monitor pedestrian traffic locations. It can count people at intersections, city parks, stadiums, downtown hot spots and other areas. It can also detect the location of any particular person and in which direction he/she is moving. This kind of information could be fruitful for the law enforcement. It can also identify small animals on road, thus creating safer streets for civilians while minimizing traffic congestion and better parking options.
As part of an initiative to digitize municipal transport systems (called DikoVers), Rรผsselsheim will deploy Velodyneโs Intelligent Infrastructure Solution using 16 lidar-based monitoring stations located on heavily travelled access roads used for entering and exiting the city.
The applicationโs lidar sensors capture non-personalized features of vehicles and their occupants on roadways to detect and electronically monitor trucks subject to the city-wide driving ban aimed at reducing traffic.
โThis data protection-compliant system of traffic monitoring is thus playing a pioneering role in Germany,โ stated Rรผsselsheim am Main city authorities.
Intricacies of technology
Centrally located in the Rhine-Main area, which is the second-largest metropolitan region in Germany, Rรผsselsheim is an ideal transportation hub with many highway connections. However, these roads resulted in hundreds of trucks passing through the city each day, creating heavy traffic and degrading urban air quality. To address this problem, Rรผsselsheim banned transit of trucks that weigh more than 7.5 tons on city streets unless they have a starting point or destination within the municipality.
To classify vehicles and identify ones subject to Rรผsselsheimโs truck ban, the Intelligent Infrastructure Solution uses Velodyneโs Ultra Puck lidar sensors that do not identify driver facial features and license plate numbers, protecting the privacy of individuals and vehicles. The applicationโs digital monitoring decreases traffic enforcement burdens on police resources.
โRรผsselsheim is taking an innovative approach to protect city residents from the congestion, noise and exhaust fumes caused by long-distance truck traffic,โ said Laura Wrisley, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Velodyne Lidar. โVelodyne believes smart city applications, like our Intelligent Infrastructure Solution, have the potential to deliver game-changing improvements in municipal transport systems and urban sustainability initiatives.โ
Velodyneโs Intelligent Infrastructure Solution
Velodyneโs Intelligent Infrastructure Solution combines Velodyneโs lidar sensors and Bluecityโs powerful artificial intelligence (AI) software. The solution creates a real-time 3D map of roads and intersections, detecting and providing precise information on road users including vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. It reliably collects data in any lighting or weather condition, supporting year-round operation, while also protecting peopleโs privacy. For this project, COM-IoT Technologies will provide a special image comparison module to the Intelligent Infrastructure Solution.
Rรผsselsheim also has plans to use the solutionโs traffic monitoring and analytics capabilities in the future. These capabilities can predict, diagnose and address road safety challenges, helping municipalities and other customers make informed decisions to take corrective action.
