The design and implementation of road condition warning system for drivers

Abstract

Intelligent transportation systems are advanced applications that inform vehicle drivers about road conditions. The main purpose of the intelligent transportation systems is to reduce either tangible or intangible loss for the drivers by ensuring the safety of passengers and vehicles. In this study, a system is designed and implemented using wireless sensor networks to inform vehicle drivers about the condition of the road surface. Icing has been chosen as the primary focus of the study since it is considered to be a big threat to road and driver’s safety. The temperature at 10 cm depth of the road, air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure and conductivity values are used as the input data for the prediction of icing on the road surface. The data were previously collected on Raspberry Pi which is a single-board computer and the data were read and processed instantly via k-nearest neighbor algorithm. Using these collected data, the road surface condition is classified as icy, dry, wet or salty-wet. The analyzed results for the road surface condition are presented to the drivers via a mobile application in real time. The drivers are alerted visually and audibly as they approach the coordinates on the road where risky conditions are present.