Network-Matched Trajectory-Based Moving-Object Database: Models and Applications

Tracking and managing the locations of moving objects are essential in modern intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). However, a number of limitations in existing methods make them unsuitable for real-world ITS applications. In particular, Euclidean-based methods are not accurate enough in representing locations and in analyzing traffic, unless the locations are frequently updated. Network-based methods require either digital maps to be installed in moving objects or transmission of prediction policies, which inevitably increase the cost. To solve these problems, we propose a network-matched trajectory-based moving-object database (NMTMOD) mechanism and a traffic flow analysis method using the NMTMOD. In the NMTMOD, the locations of moving objects are tracked through a dense sampling and batch uploading strategy, and a novel edge-centric network-matching method, which is running at the server side, is adopted to efficiently match the densely sampled GPS points to the network. In addition, a deviation-based trajectory optimization method is provided to minimize the trajectory size. Empirical studies with large real trajectory data set offer insight into the design properties of the proposed NMTMOD and suggest that the NMTMOD significantly outperforms other mobile-map free-moving-object database models in terms of precision of both location tracking and network-based traffic flow analysis.