A Low-Cost IoT Application for the Urban Traffic of Vehicles, Based on Wireless Sensors Using GSM Technology

Congestion of vehicular traffic in the cities with the highest population density results into a high amount of accidents and also to imminent road violence above average. Facing this problem, our study intends to implement a low-cost Internet of Thing proposal, in order to monitor and analyze traffic circulation and provide solutions to reduce the above mentioned negative effects. To fulfill such proposal, a system of low-cost wireless monitoring has been designed and developed, which is supported on a distributed multilayer model. This system interacts with a device consisting of two electronic Arduino platforms, which themselves interact in master-slave mode having a distance sensor based on laser for detection of vehicles. The latter has the ability to connect to the Internet transmitting in real-time data taken by HTTP requests over the cellular network. On the data collected an engine for data mining is mounted in order to receive information about the traffic on highways and subsequently proposing potential solutions. The proof of concept has been applied in the city of Quito. There, on over their two central lanes of the Simon Bolivar Avenue such kind of solutions have been applied with positive results, both in the operation of the software and hardware that compose the prototype, as well as in reference measurements of traffic. Based on our findings, the system manages to suggest extrapolations, which enables to reduce traffic congestion, fuel waste, and also air pollution.