The Pulse of the City: Using mmWave Sensors for Intelligent Detection and Tracking of Intelligent Transportation Systems

“Just as we use sensing technology to measure an individual’s breathing and heart rate, cities actually benefit from the same technology. A key element of a smart city is an intelligent transportation system equipped with sensors that monitor the “health” of the city – tracking traffic data and parking metering for enforcement, traffic light prioritization and incident management, as shown in Figure 1.

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Just as we use sensing technology to measure an individual’s breathing and heart rate, cities actually benefit from the same technology. A key element of a smart city is an intelligent transportation system equipped with sensors that monitor the “health” of the city – tracking traffic data and parking metering for enforcement, traffic light prioritization and incident management, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Intelligent transportation systems help monitor the “health” of cities through intersection monitoring and parking space detection

At the heart of intelligent transportation systems, smart sensors can track traffic jams and keep traffic flowing, especially at intersections and highways. These sensors must have the following capabilities:

l Accuracy for measuring the reach, speed and position of vehicles or pedestrians.

l Stability, including working in airtight weather, darkness and sunlight.

l Integrity, optimize real-time evaluation and correction.

l Ease of use, with reference code and samples to speed up deployment.

TI’s innovative millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology is a wireless sensing solution for traffic monitoring with the ability to measure distance, speed and location information to determine vehicle-to-intersection distance, vehicle speed and lane occupancy . In the new traffic monitoring detection and tracking reference design using mmWave radar sensors, the IWR1642 includes the C674x digital signal processors capable of object detection, while the Arm^® The R4F processor can track the distance and speed of the vehicle at any time. See Figure 2.

Figure 2: The diagram on the left clearly shows the process of detecting and tracking two vehicles using the IWR1642

TI’s new design makes it easy for designers to use mmWave radar sensors in a wide range of applications (see Table 1). For example, a sensor that monitors vehicle speed on a highway could issue speeding tickets remotely and reduce the likelihood that law enforcement officers will encounter dangerous situations. However, in order to do this, the sensor must be able to accurately detect the velocity of individual objects at different distances, which is achieved through the Vmax algorithm added to the design.

The feature could also improve the accuracy of the sensor’s monitoring of intersections, allowing it to better predict the number of approaching vehicles. And enable green light control, which reduces vehicle starts and stops for smoother traffic and makes it easier to issue tickets to vehicles running red lights.

The reference design also features advanced detection and tracking algorithms that enable the sensor to maintain a history of where specific objects are located, making it easier for the sensor to distinguish between vehicles or other objects in dense urban environments.

With a resolution of 35 cm, the solution is able to detect a wide range of objects up to 200 meters away. In addition, the solution with 50 cm/s speed resolution can accurately track vehicles with speed limits of 200 km/h and higher on highway single lanes, as well as speed limits of 70 km/h, with green light control at intersections and law enforcement vehicles on multiple lanes.

The 120-degree field of view (FOV) function with 15-degree angular resolution enables a wider field of view to detect vehicles or pedestrians approaching an intersection. Sensors can keep an eye on multiple parking spaces, so drivers know if a space is available in a lane in the parking lot, or if they need to change floors to find it.

Table 1: TI’s mmWave sensors provide advantages for intelligent transportation systems

The innovative technologies in the IWR1642 mmWave sensor system help you meet the challenges of intelligent transportation systems so you can focus on creating personalized end products.