Wireless sensor network assisted dynamic path planning for transportation systems

Abstract

The static path planning of transportation network is only considering the shortest-path from source to destination. The approach cannot adjust the path dynamically when the predetermined path is obstructed. It could increase the traveling time to destination and could not effectively plan the path with shortest time. In this paper we propose a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) assisted framework for dynamic path planning for transportation systems, which collects the traffic information dynamically using sensor nodes and plan the path of transportation network with shortest time using Satellite Navigation System. The WSN can be used for calculating the estimated traveling time and looking for a shortest-time path by way of fusing the traffic information, such as average speed and number of vehicles in a timeframe, collected from the candidate path. Users can thus use handheld device, such as PDA, with GPS (Global Position System) and GIS (Geographic Information System) to dynamically plan the path via requesting the WSN to collect traffic information. It can perform better than the static path planning approach. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.