Intelligent Transportation Systems

ENHANCING SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY FOR ROAD TRAFFIC AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Traffic managers around the world rely on intelligent detection and monitoring solutions to help manage safe, efficient traffic flow. With more than 30 years of proven transportation experience, FLIR offers advanced hardware and software solutions to help you monitor traffic and vulnerable road users (VRUs) in urban environments, reliably and accurately detecting incidents in tunnels and on highways, collecting detailed traffic data, and ensuring public safety.

Urban Traffic

FLIR’s range of thermal and visual traffic sensors help you control intersections and optimize the flow of vehicles and improve safety for VRUs. These traffic sensors can provide the most basic data such as loop information at an intersection, up to the most detailed information such as counting and classification of the different type of vehicles and VRUs. On top of this data collection, FLIR traffic sensors can provide accurate location information, together with heading and speed data. All of this enables the sensor to provide information for the most advanced traffic adaptive systems.

Highways, Tunnels, and Bridges

FLIR automatic incident detection solutions help save lives in tunnels, on highways, and on bridges by detecting different types of incidents, including accidents, wrong-way drivers, lost cargo, pedestrians, smoke, and fire. Early detection of road irregularities enables first responders to intervene quickly and avoid secondary accidents. These solutions collect data and traffic information to make the traffic more efficient and are made of stainless steel to prevent corrosion in the harshest of environments.

Enhanced Traffic Efficiency

• Control intersections and crosswalks to reduce bottlenecks

• Optimize traffic flow

• Collect valuable data for traffic engineers

Enhanced Traffic Safety

• Improve signal control with edge-based Automatic Incident Detection (AID)

• Detect traffic irregularities early

• Detect vulnerable road users (VRUs)

DETECTION AND MONITORING SOLUTIONS

FLIR has field-proven solutions to help cities run safely and ensure traffic efficiency on highways, bridges, and in tunnels. By combining AI- and video analytic-enhanced cameras with traffic management and data analytics software, FLIR is helping cities around the globe run more smoothly.

Real-Time Analysis

Real-time analysis of optical or thermal camera images allows for more efficient traffic management in tunnels, on highways, and in urban areas. Traffic lights can be adapted in real-time, according to current traffic flows. When incidents occur, early detection enables faster intervention by rescue teams, preventing secondary accidents.

Cost Effective

Video detection systems for monitoring traffic streams are extremely cost effective. Cameras can be easily installed above ground on existing infrastructure–such as mast arms, luminaires, or existing poles– eliminating the need for road closures or other disturbances. Detection zones can also be easily moved or adapted when traffic situations change.

Connected

FLIR sensors securely connect to all varieties of management software solutions. From video recording, command and control, traffic event storage, cloud data analytics, and V2X communication, FLIR transportation solutions are capable of much more than detection.

Video Detection: Seeing is Believing

The combination of numerical data and visual images sets video detection apart from all other detection systems. The immediate visual feedback from a monitor is invaluable for traffic managers or operators to know exactly what is occurring and what appropriate actions to take.

Efficient and Reliable

Video detection and monitoring systems from FLIR are used around the world. Traffic managers appreciate their high detection rates and speed. This results in a low Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and a low False Alarm Frequency (FAF).

Proven Technology

Over 300,000 FLIR traffic cameras are operational in over 80 countries worldwide. FLIR has Automatic Incident Detection (AID) installations in more than 3500 tunnels and traffic light management systems at more than 75,000 intersections worldwide.

THERMAL IMAGING FOR TRAFFIC APPLICATIONS

While visual cameras are traditionally used for traffic video analysis, they are inherently vulnerable to low light conditions (nighttime), too much light (sun glare), and shadows that can hide vehicles or pedestrians. Thermal sensors don’t face any of these issues because they create a crisp image based on differences in heat signatures within a scene. Thermal sensors need no light to work, are not blinded by direct sunlight, and provide uninterrupted 24-hour detection of vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists in all weather conditions and regardless of the amount of light available. Therefore, thermal is highly recommended in safety critical applications such as protecting vulnerable road users. The most challenging conditions for an optical camera are the same conditions that decrease the visibility for the drivers—so in these conditions it is even more important to use thermal sensors.

Headlights

Headlights are confusing to video cameras, making accurate observation of highway traffic at night challenging. Thermal sensors, however, are immune to headlight glare, so they see clearly.

Long-Range Night Viewing

At night, a highway looks like an indistinct row of lights to a video camera, making meaningful data collection and incident assessment almost impossible. But thermal cameras see the heat signatures of vehicles clearly from miles away, while also providing clear views of the roadsides, revealing vehicles that are pulled over.

Sun Glare

Glare from the sun blinds conventional video cameras, effectively hiding vehicles, people, and animals. Thermal sensors cannot see this glare and only respond to the heat signatures they detect.

Shadows

Video cameras can miss pedestrians, cyclists, animals, and cars at night or in heavy shadow. However, since thermal sensors see heat, not light, they can see into shadows or total darkness, providing a more reliable detection solution.

Smoke

Thermal cameras see through smoke, offering better visibility than visual cameras in the event of a fire. This enhanced vision can help emergency personnel quickly locate and evacuate victims during tunnel fires and other incidents.

Measure Temperature

Thermal cameras display the temperature differences of any objects in their field of view. This unique capability allows detection of fires at their early stages over the full detection range.

How Video Analytics Work

FLIR’s intelligent traffic sensors directly analyze optical and/or thermal video in the camera, enabling them to work on the full frame rate at high resolution, with detection zones superimposed onto the scene. This allows for optimal balance between performance, impact on networking, and storage infrastructure. When a vehicle or a pedestrian enters a detection zone, dedicated algorithms generate different types of traffic data. This includes presence and incident-related data, information for statistical processing, and data for preand post-incident analysis. Compressed images and alarms are transmitted to the technical control room. The system can be installed so that the video image processor triggers a third-party system, such as a traffic light, electronic traffic sign, or any other VMS panel. When an alarm is generated, the traffic manager in the control room will receive a visual image of the scene, allowing them to act.

URBAN SMART CITY SOLUTIONS

FLIR Intelligent Traffic Solutions collect valuable data that allows monitoring systems to detect the position and speed of vehicles, predict traffic flow, and—with the inclusion of thermal imaging—detect potential fires by measuring temperatures across the scene.

Pedestrian Safety and Mobility

FLIR sensors allow you to include pedestrian movement into traffic control strategies and make them more visible to traffic. With dynamic traffic light control and warning sign activation, operators can make intersections and pedestrian crossings safer, while also preventing unnecessary delays to both pedestrians and motorists.

• Constant detection of pedestrian occupancy at crossings dynamically controls wait time

• Replace inefficient push buttons

• Improve safety for vulnerable road users

Vehicle Detection

FLIR traffic sensors are reliable, accurate, and nonintrusive detection technologies specifically designed for signal control and traffic management. By detecting vehicles so efficiently, FLIR sensors enable smart intersection control for greater safety.

• Improve city traffic flows

• Reduce unnecessary delays

• Enhance safety for all road user

Bicycle Detection

By looking at heat signatures, thermal cameras can make a reliable distinction between bicyclists and vehicles. Traffic signals can be adapted to give bicyclists green time ahead of vehicle traffic for greater visibility. Bicycle detection will provide an extended clearance time for bicyclists, allowing them more time to cross an intersection without causing unnecessary delays.

• Above-ground thermal sensors reliably detect bicyclists in mixed traffic environments

• Trigger bicycle warning signals dynamically

• Adapt traffic signals to enhance bicycle safety

High-Resolution Data Analytics

FLIR thermal and visual analytics provide real-time traffic signal control by detecting the presence of vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians at intersections. This generates valuable traffic data, including counts, occupancy, classification at the stop bar, and between intersections. Through Wi-Fi technology that anonymously tracks movement through intersections, FLIR sensors can measure travel times, delays, points of origin, and destinations. FLIR integrates both presence data and traffic flow data into a single source in the cloud, resulting in high-resolution, high-quality intersection data.

• Capture, store, and fuse valuable traffic data

• Measure intersection performance

• Real-time congestion mapping

• Better insights, better decisions

Intelligent Transportation Systems

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