Low-cost Low-power Wireless Sensor Network Based Highway Incident Detection & Warning System

More that 52% of the U.S. highway congestion in urban areas is a direct result of highway incidents. Federal and State transportation authorities are searching for quick, low-cost and efficient highway incident detection and warning systems. Several solutions have been proposed but none could meet the requirements of transportation authorities. Central Signal, funded by federal agencies, has done extensive research on Intelligent transportation solutions and is acutely aware of the need. Central Signal's preliminary research to design a low-cost, reliable sensor network based solution relies on more than 25 years of transportation industry experience. The preliminary efforts have verified that magnetoresistive sensors are most suitable for this application. The proposed research will prove the technical and scientific feasibility of this low-cost, reliable incident detections system based on magnetic sensors, spread spectrum radios, and solar power systems. The research will use productive simulation tools to evaluate the effectiveness of this system and demonstrate the system at a test site and will make the case for its large scale production.