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Smart Traffic Light for Low Traffic Conditions

A Solution for Improving the Drivers Safety

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Abstract

This work presents a novel traffic device (LaNPro) that avoids the stop of vehicles at junctions under low traffic conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first smart traffic light designed for low traffic conditions. LaNPro is a security solution to preserve the physical integrity of drivers in countries with high social discrepancy. The server-side of the solution is deployed as a module of a smart traffic light, and it senses the presence of vehicles along the road through input devices (radars, cameras, road sensors, wireless communication) to assign the right of way. While any smart traffic light is able to manage low traffic intersections, we argue that they are not specialized devices to perform such task, and thus they may lack important optimizations. The main aggregated value of our approach is the ability to handle low traffic conditions, and that involves several challenges. Results show that our proposal may ensure the non-stop crossing of intersections having an expected traffic volume equal or less than λ = 0.10 vehicles per second, assuming intersections composed of 2, 3, or 4 lanes, road segments 200 m long, intersections 10 m wide, and vehicles 5 m long traveling at an average speed of μ = 40 km/h with standard deviation σ = 4 km/h.

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Notes

  1. LaNPro: Late Night Programming.

  2. Intelligent Transportation Systems.

  3. http://www.themotorreport.com.au/46137/

  4. http://www.audi.com/.

  5. Minimum speed is location-dependent, typically defined by the transit authority.

  6. In Section 5.4 we demonstrate that LaNPro can manage the traversal of intersections up to λ = 0.1 vehicles per unit of time.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially funded by CNPq, FAPEMIG, FAPEAL, and InWeb.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Department, Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, Ouro Branco, Brazil

    Cristiano M. Silva

  2. Computing Institute, Universidade Federal de Alagoas (IC-UFAL), Alagoas, Brazil

    Andre L. L. Aquino

  3. Computer Science Department, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (DCC-UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Wagner Meira Jr.

Authors
  1. Cristiano M. Silva
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  2. Andre L. L. Aquino
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  3. Wagner Meira Jr.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cristiano M. Silva.

Additional information

Patent: BR 10 2013 027283 3.

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Silva, C.M., Aquino, A.L.L. & Meira, W. Smart Traffic Light for Low Traffic Conditions. Mobile Netw Appl 20, 285–293 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-015-0571-x

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