Traffic sensor management

• US 8,706,459 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2012
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Raj, Srivastava, Biplav
• Primary Examiner(s): Rivas, Omar Fernandez
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gebresilassie, Kibrom
• Application Number:
  US13/586,067
• Publication Number:
  US 20130090905A1
• Time in Patent Office: 615 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 703/8
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0108 based on the source of data

Abstract

A method for selecting a subset of at least one traffic sensor includes modeling multiple sensor types to generate at least one sensor model, creating a sample space of at least one sensor combination of multiple sensors, modeling traffic movement of a region, running a traffic simulation based on the at least one sensor model, the sample space of at least one sensor combination and traffic movement of the region, wherein the traffic simulation generates multiple candidate sets of sensors, and selecting a subset of the multiple sensors based on the multiple candidate sets of sensors.

Claims

1. A method for selecting a subset of traffic sensors, wherein the method comprises:

modeling multiple sensor types to generate at least one sensor model;

creating a sample space of at least one sensor combination of multiple sensors;

modeling traffic movement of a region;

running a traffic simulation based on the at least one sensor model, the sample space of at least one sensor combination and traffic movement of the region, wherein the traffic simulation generates multiple candidate sets of sensors and measures a sensing error distribution entailed in each of the multiple candidate sets of sensors;

selecting a subset of the multiple sensors from the multiple candidate sets of sensors based on the sensing error distribution entailed in each of the multiple candidate sets of sensors and at least one additional criterion; and

filtering the selected subset of the multiple sensors, wherein said filtering comprises removing a sensor combination from the sample space above an error threshold;

wherein at least one of the steps is carried out by a computer device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the subset of the multiple sensors in a database.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the subset of the multiple sensors as an output set to a user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modeling multiple sensor types comprises modeling the multiple sensor types based on cost.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein modeling multiple sensor types comprises modeling the multiple sensor types based on accuracy.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein modeling multiple sensor types comprises modeling the multiple sensor types based on coverage.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein running a traffic simulation based on the at least one sensor model and the sample space of at least one sensor combination further comprises ensuring at least one physical characteristic of at least one additional location is taken into account.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a subset of the multiple sensors from the multiple candidate sets of sensors comprises selecting a Pareto-optimal combination of sensor choices.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein filtering the selected subset of the multiple sensors comprises removing a sensor combination from the sample space above a given cost threshold.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an approximation of a selected subset of the multiple sensors for a given number, k, of sought choices.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising selecting a preference function.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising using Integrated Convex Preference approximation.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a given number, k, of subsets of traffic sensors when the selected subset of the multiple sensors and a belief distribution is given.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising extending at least one sensor in a region given a current sensor layout.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein extending at least one sensor in a region comprises:

modeling current traffic conditions in a simulator; and

determining sensor combinations for new cost or error thresholds.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a system, wherein the system comprises at least one distinct software module, each distinct software module being embodied on a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium, and wherein the at least one distinct software module comprises a traffic simulator module and a sensor subset selection module executing on a hardware processor.