IRG Activity Report Date of Submission: 21 / 06 /2011 1. IRG code and name of IRG 1) IRG code: IRG 14 2009 2) Name of IRG Platform for Transport and Environment Information (PTEI) 2. List of research members Mr Branko Stazic Dr Nikolaos Vogiatzis Dr Wen long Yue Dr Sadasivam Karuppannan Dr Sekhar Somenahalli Professor Huang Huixian Professor Yang Huixian 3. Purpose and Mission of IRG Adaptive computer controlled traffic management systems are used to monitor and control traffic signals all around the world. The Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) was developed in 1970s and has demonstrated great benefits for isolated and area linked signalised intersection controls[1, 2]. These systems also collect and store extremely large amounts of data that can be useful input to the transportation planning and management process [3-7]. The development of a traffic data abstraction layer would enable effective and efficient data handling and represent an important tool that would help transportation professionals in making better traffic management and planning decisions. At the core of this IRG, is the use of traffic signalling data collected by implementations of SCATS, one of the world’s leading intersection traffic management systems, which is used in many countries in East Asia, including China, Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and Philippines. SCATS produces numerous ‘log’ files which are typically read using the SCATS Traffic Reporter application provided by the developers[7]. This tool allows traffic signalling engineers and practitioners an “off-line” tool for quick and simple access to the rich data stored within, however it does have some limitations including the inability to easily produce time series reports of intersection and network performance. The developers of SCATS have supported researchers from the Institute for Sustainable Systems Technologies – Transport Systems (ISST-TS) at the University of South Australia to develop a long-range signalling system analysis tool by providing the necessary log file protocols that allow for the independent processing of the from a binary computer efficient format into a human readable format capable of being loaded into a database management system. Since 2003, researchers from ISST-TS have developed the Nexus database which is capable of querying SCATS human readable data and providing answers to complex queries[6]; which would not be possible using Traffic Reporter such as: • • • • • • • • • Time Series analysis of o Individual intersections, by approach, by lane, by season (for example, every Wednesday between 0700 ~ 0900 over any given number of years for any given list of intersections within the entire network), vehicle volumes and direction. o Intersection performance, including how many and for how long have individual detectors failed Correlation of intersection types and the development of scaling factors for the normalisation of intersection key performance indicators. The calculation of directional and intersection Average Annual Daily Traffic, as these are crucial to planning and road investment decisions Spatial-Temporal/GIS analysis of intersections demonstrating strategic network usage and points of network vulnerability And more… Much work has already been performed using the data, however, data cleansing is a long manual process at this time. This project aims to develop an abstraction layer which will allow for the development of algorithms for removing errant data (such as can be found when detectors produce aberrant counts or during times of detector alarm when no data is collected), standardising the output so as to allow ‘like’-to-‘like’ intersection analysis thus providing the mechanism by which intersections can be classified automatically by geometry, land-use, population density, vehicle volume density, seasonal intersection utilisation, public transport corridors, vehicle classification, and other relevant data. This then will allow for high accuracy associated with any necessary data imputation in the development of the abstraction layer. In order to ensure the highest accuracy, other vehicle counting/classification data sources will be employed, including manual (turning/non-turning) counts, video detection, pneumatic tube counters, to name a few. This will provide an overlapped data space vastly reducing overall errors in the abstract data layer. As a result, numerous template type reports will be created which provide relevant measures of intersection performance that can be produced automatically on an on-going basis with little human interaction other than to verify the accuracy of the information presented. These reports will be flexible insofar as they will allow traffic practitioners the ability to request generalised reports for any given intersection or groups of intersections over any given time period. It is expected that the research relating to SCATS operations and data correlations will provide a solid base to perform further research for the benefit of the wider community. References 1. Tyco Integrated Systems Ltd and Roads and Traffic Authority New South Wales. Traffic Management SCATS. 2006 [cited 2009 March]; Available from: http://www.traffic-tech.com/pdf/scatsbrochure.pdf. 2. Sims, A.G. and K.W. Dobinson, The Sydney coordinated adaptive traffic (SCAT) system philosophy and benefits. Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on, 1980. 29(2): p. 130-137. 3. Stazic, B. and N. Vogiatzis, Algorithm for Calculating Average Vehicle Counts by Imputing Intersection Data from SCATS Installations. 2009, Institute for Sustainable Systems and Technologies - Transport Systems: Adelaide, Australia. 4. Fehlmann, S., et al. Nexus: Developing a Schema to Contain Disparate Traffic Data Types for Parallel Distributed Processing. in Papers of the 29th Australasian Transportation Research Forum. 2006. Gold Coast, Australia. 5. Ikeda, H., et al. Three Layer Object Model for Integrated Transportation System. in 1st International Workshop on Object Systems and Systems Architecture. 2004. Victor Habor, Australia: The Jacaranda Group at the University of Adelaide. 6. Vogiatzis, N., NEXUS: Urban Traffic Control (UTC) historical database reporting tool, in Nexus I ~ Nexus III. 2004 - 2009, Institute for Sustainable Systems and Technologies - Transport Systems: Adelaide. 7. Vogiatzis, N., On Organic Transportation and the Next Generation Urban Traffic Management Systems, in Transport Systems Centre. 2008, University of South Australia: Adelaide. p. 448. 4. Achievements of IRG in 2010-2011 1) Paper, report and book: (Title, Authors, Year, Name of the Journal, etc.) (Please include the paper(s) submitted to 2011 EASTS conference.) (You don’t need to attach the files.) Cothenet, C, Morias, C 2010, “Sydney Coordinated Traffic System (SCATS) Vehicle Detector Validation”, Honours Project Report Cothenet, C, Morias, C, Vogiatzis, N 2011 “Sydney Coordinated Traffic System (SCATS) Vehicle Detector Validation: A Literature Review”, Australasian Transport Research Forum 2011, Adelaide, Australia – Full Paper Submitted 2) Seminar, symposium and special session: (Title, Date, Venue & abstract) 3) Group meeting: (Date, Venue & abstract) 4) Result of application for the research grants: (Name & result) 5) Promotional activities of your IRG: (Homepage, Newsletter, Mailing list etc.) This project is promoted internally within the University of South Australia at this stage. However there are plans to present this project at a symposium in July 2011. 5. Will you continue your IRG’s activity after 2011 EASTS conference? Please select the answer. (Yes / No) Yes If you have an intention to complete your IRG, please submit a final report of the IRG based on original purpose and mission of the IRG. You can make the final report by free format. Furthermore, please submit useful materials such as PowerPoint slides used at IRG's seminar if possible. The materials will be shown on the EASTS website. 6. Future research plan and including time frame with the following items: - Possibility to hold seminar and symposium (Date & Venue) Although no specific date has been set, the 2011 students working on this project will be presenting later this year. - Special considerations to young researchers This project continues to be a key research output for Honours level civil engineering students. There are four students working on this project for 2011 looking specifically at how various vehicles are detected by detector technology.