A solid-state vehicle detector for roadway applications

In this paper, the authors present a magnetoresistive magnetometer concept as a vehicle detector. A magnetoresistive three-axis magnetometer was designed, fabricated, characterized, and tested with the purpose of detecting vehicles on highways. Testing included making measurements at in-use roadway test sites. Magnetic 'signatures' of vehicles were collected and post-test data analyzed by applying a detection algorithm. Detection accuracy was greater than 90% for all types of vehicles passing over the detectors.