Robust PCA-based abnormal traffic flow pattern isolation and loop detector fault detection

One key function of intelligent transportation systems is to automatically detect abnormal traffic phenomena and to help further investigations of the cause of the abnormality. This paper describes a robust principal components analysis (RPCA)-based abnormal traffic flow pattern isolation and loop detector fault detection method. The results show that RPCA is a useful tool to distinguish regular traffic flow from abnormal traffic flow patterns caused by accidents and loop detector faults. This approach gives an effective traffic flow data pre-processing method to reduce the human effort in finding potential loop detector faults. The method can also be used to further investigate the causes of the abnormality.