Design and Evaluation of an RF-based Detection and Identification System for Public Utility Vehicles

Colorum vehicles, as defined by the Land Transportation Franchising & Regulatory Board of the Philippines, are vehicles acting as Public Utility Vehicles (PUVs) without proper registration or authorization. They present one of the most rampant problems in Philippine transportation, and current systems designed to detect colorum vehicles include only manual visual inspection which are prone to error and can disrupt traffic. An RF-based (Radio Frequency) system for automatically detecting registered vehicles was designed and tested to solve this problem. This system uses a pair of RF nodes - one installed in a PUV to mark it as registered and one installed in a base station to detect RF nodes in passing PUVs. Test results showed that it was possible to detect a registered PUV 100% of the time when the system is deployed at a PUV stop, and 97% of the time when deployed along an open road in a PUV route. Detection distances for registered PUVs were also measured to be at an average of 77m for base stations deployed at waiting sheds, which would grant traffic enforcers enough time to flag down a suspected colorum vehicle. Overall, the system can reduce the number of instances that traffic enforcers would have to flag down and inspect vehicles, therefore resulting in a more efficient implementation of traffic rules.