Traffic Monitoring
First Claim
1. A method of monitoring road traffic moving on a road comprising:
- interrogating an optical fibre with optical radiation to provide distributed acoustic sensing so as to generate an acoustic measurement signal from each of a plurality of sensing portions of said optical fibre;
wherein at least one of said sensing portions of said optical fibre is located in the vicinity of a known noise feature located on or formed in the surface of the road in a known location; and
wherein said noise feature is configured to produce a characteristic acoustic signature when traversed by a wheel of a road vehicle, andthe method comprises detecting vehicles passing over said noise feature by analysing said acoustic measurement signal from said at least one sensing portion located in the vicinity of the known noise feature to detect occurrences of said characteristic acoustic signature.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present application relates to road traffic monitoring to detect the number, speed and/or type of vehicles travelling on a road. Noise features (104) are deployed on, or formed in, the surface of a road (101). The noise feature (104) is arranged to generate a characteristic acoustic signature when traversed by the wheels of a vehicle (105) travelling within a lane of the road. A distributed acoustic sensor (102, 103) is deployed to detect occurrences of the characteristic acoustic signature. In some embodiments the noise element may comprise at least two distinct elements (104a, 104b), for instance rumble strips arranged transversely to the road, which are a known distance apart along the road. The acoustic signals from a wheel crossing both elements can be detected and used to determine the vehicle speed. The number of vehicle axles and axle separation can also be determined to categorise the type of vehicle. A plurality of noise features may be located in different lanes of a multi-lane road with noise features in different lanes arranged to generate different characteristic acoustic signatures.
17 Citations
55 Claims
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1. A method of monitoring road traffic moving on a road comprising:
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interrogating an optical fibre with optical radiation to provide distributed acoustic sensing so as to generate an acoustic measurement signal from each of a plurality of sensing portions of said optical fibre; wherein at least one of said sensing portions of said optical fibre is located in the vicinity of a known noise feature located on or formed in the surface of the road in a known location; and wherein said noise feature is configured to produce a characteristic acoustic signature when traversed by a wheel of a road vehicle, and the method comprises detecting vehicles passing over said noise feature by analysing said acoustic measurement signal from said at least one sensing portion located in the vicinity of the known noise feature to detect occurrences of said characteristic acoustic signature. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28)
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5-6. -6. (canceled)
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13. (canceled)
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23. (canceled)
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25. (canceled)
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29. A system for monitoring traffic movement on a road comprising:
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a distributed fibre optic sensor apparatus for interrogating an optical fibre with optical radiation to provide distributed acoustic sensing so as to generate an acoustic measurement signal from each of a plurality of sensing portions of said optical fibre; and at least one known noise feature located on or formed in the surface of the road in a known location; wherein said noise feature is configured to produce a characteristic acoustic signature when traversed by a wheel of a road vehicle, and wherein at least one of said sensing portions of said optical fibre is located in the vicinity of said known noise feature; the system further comprising a processor for processing the acoustic measurement signal from the at least one sensing portion located in the vicinity of said known noise feature to detect occurrences of said characteristic acoustic signature so as to detect vehicles passing over said noise feature.
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30-53. -53. (canceled)
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54. A method of processing data collected from at least one sensing portion of a distributed acoustic sensor deployed in the vicinity of a noise feature in a known location in a road, the method comprising analysing said data to detect occurrences of a characteristic acoustic signature associated with a vehicle traversing said noise feature.
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55-59. -59. (canceled)
Specification