Browsing by Author "Chen, Yuheng"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Fiber Sensing: Real-time, Long-distance Traffic Monitoring
    Viray, Reg; Mollenhauer, Michael A.; Chen, Yuheng; Huang, Ming-Fang (2024-07-26)
    The report presents the pilot testing of NEC’s distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) and artificial intelligence behavior detection technologies on the Virginia Smart Roads. The intent was to explore the viability of DFOS through existing fiber installations for traffic management and road safety, potentially superseding traditional methods like cameras or radar. Key use cases for DFOS include identifying wrong-way driving, traffic queues, emergency stops, and other non-standard driving behaviors, which are all critical for traffic management and safety. NEC collaborated with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute to install fiber optics along a highway section conforming to Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) standards and executed orchestrated driving scenarios to test detection capabilities under various traffic and weather conditions. The results of these tests demonstrated that DFOS could effectively detect wrong-way driving across different traffic densities. However, challenges remain with vehicle count and speed accuracy in high-traffic situations. In addition, the DFOS hardware solutions would need to be deployable in roadside cabinets with limited environmental control to be viable for deployment across VDOT’s roadway system. The project underscores the strategic advantage of using existing network infrastructures for monitoring and suggests that while the NEC system shows promise in certain applications, further refinements are needed for handling complex traffic scenarios.