Multipurpose Sensing Platform for Improved Road Safety

Intelligent mobility is on the rise fueling research of new technologies that improve transportation safety. This paper presents the design and implementation of a multipurpose roadside sensing platform for improved road safety. To this end, we propose a small, low-cost, and low-power roadside sensing platform, to be deployed with high granularity, on the guardrails of highways. The sensing platform includes weather sensors, for high resolution weather mapping and an accelerometer to detect impacts (accidents) on the guardrails. It also features a microphone and a lightweight vehicle detection algorithm based on sound, to monitor the traffic intensity. This paper presents the architecture of the different modules that integrate the system, as well as their implementation. The behavior of the system was verified with tests of the individual components and real-world field tests, such as the validation of the vehicle detector, battery autonomy and solar charging, and weather and collision monitoring.