FACING
CHALLENGES
TOLL EVASION DECREASING
ALPR: AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
Customer’s name:
Brisa Auto-estradas de Portugal
Country: Portugal, Europe
Completion date: 2010
INNOVATION NETWORK
CHALLENGE
Toll evasion is not only a direct threat to revenue
collection, but also has indirect impacts in customer relationship management. Brisa's concession is
largely composed by closed systems, where having
exact and precise data, on both entries and exits, is
crucial. Otherwise, it would be hard to determine
the exact amount to collect and to differentiate
violations from common good-faith mistakes from
well-intended road users and clients.
Even using image capture, the human operated
effort could easily be cost inefficient, when operating such a control system. The solution had to be
as much automated as possible, without being too
expensive to implement.
Vehicle identification is key in the Toll Collection
process where, at that time, a high percentage of
heavy vehicle trailers' transactions failed to be
identified and thus collected. In toll plazas, cars
with fake license plates kept jeopardising the client
relationship with the Toll Operator. Manual processing of a large volume of images was slow and
had low rates of success and involved a large number of BackOffice operators.
At some point, all these toll leakage situations
were estimated to represent a substantial percentage of the toll revenue. A new solution was necessary to guarantee toll collection whenever a normal ETC transaction was not possible.
When using imagery, difficult weather conditions
and license plates obscured by dirt represented a
challenge, as these factors degraded the level of
confidence for the Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) algorithm.
All information produced by such a system should
also guarantee full integration with current tolling
systems in place. It was also important that all
image data using the network bandwidth was kept
to a minimum. This system would have to allow the
Toll Operator to validate each transaction individually, if needed, and also permitting internal audit
services and probing. All images captured had also
to be eligible for legal purposes as evidence in a
court of law.
In the end, the solution had to allow the Client to
recover as much toll revenue as possible with the
least implementation, operation and maintenance
costs .
(Continued on back)
http://www.brisainnovation.com
STRATEGY
Low cost investments to increase customer
care support and higher toll collection efficiency.
TESTIMONIALS
"About 75% of heavy vehicle
trailers ceased to escape
from toll collection"
Margarida Cordeiro, Eng. (Prevention and
Toll Collection Director, Via Verde Portugal)
[v2.201211]
OVERVIEW
Universities' research centres from ISEL and
IST; Development and Industrialisation with
Salemo & Merca; EID; CERCIMPRE; ARH;
Crossline; Makewise; g3p; ISQ
TOLL EVASION DECREASING
ALPR: AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION
(Continued from front)
SOLUTION
The solution developed by Brisa Innovation and
integrated in over 800 toll plaza lanes (in Brisa's
concession only) faced all the challenges thrown
by the Toll Operator, our Client.
By using a combination of infrared and visible light
video cameras, in all entry and exit lanes
(regardless of being manual or ETC systems), we
assured high levels of confidence in readings (over
95% against the 65% for the manual process). This
meant that most processes' situations could be
followed without any human intervention. Image
high compression for positive OCR readings resulted in low bandwidth usage, decreasing the total
cost of ownership, leaving space for other LAN
uses.
Also by capturing front license plates, the heavy
vehicle trailers violations were reduced dramatically, inducing an increase in toll revenue. Digital
signature allowed guaranteeing authenticity, valid
as legal evidence.
Creating a complete system where market vendors' independence and versatility was a premise,
so that Client was not made hostage of suppliers,
thus increasing its negotiating capabilities in the
future, whenever needed. The end solution permitted that each transaction, even if incomplete,
is associated with a composed single photography
identifying the license-plate associated, as an
image and as data, together with the photo information. In general a 40% rate of success in violations recovering is now celebrated in ETC benefiting from ALPR solution.
Considering only this concession and toll collection recovery, cash-flow positive impact was
estimated in 2,6 million euros annual, with a NPV
estimated to be over 30 million euros, for a 25
year period
LIFE QUALITY AND MOBILITY
IN HISTORIC DISTRICTS
BRISA INNOVATION’S VEHICLE ACCESS CONTROL SOLUTION
CHALLENGE
The historical heritage of Lisbon is very rooted in
the architecture of the city. Those areas are increasingly sought after for 1st residence homes but
parking is limited. Congested traffic and emergency
access problems demanded for new practical and
comfortable solutions.
The biggest challenges in this project were related
with the historical architecture and delicacy of the
area. Also, the current layout and integration with
city urban furniture was important. From a technological point of view, dealing with such a large area
to be monitored and controlled, and the absence
of data and network infra-structures represented
additional hardships. All security and safety liaisons
with fire brigades and police units would have to
be guaranteed right from the beginning.
Brisa Innovation developed an access control solution, initially commissioned by EMEL (Lisbon's
Parking Agency), and aimed to solve these problems. The concept was to install a remotely operated vehicle access control system only accessible to
selected users, namely residents, merchants and
public transportations. The identification is made
by a DSRC on board unit already used for Via Verde
services, such as Tolling mean of payment.
The City of Lisbon, by using this concept in several
other urban areas, managed to improve the quality of life of the residents of these historical areas,
increased safety and security and promoted
mobility.
SOLUTION
The solution implemented benefit from the extensive know-how gathered in over 100 car parks,
with an award winning car parking system, also
using DSRC OBU with Via Verde.
The infra-structure was installed using a single
point for each historical area, through a compact
datacentre that serves all local equipment. A fibreoptic link to the EMEL headquarters allows our
Client to centralize operation of the entire system,
made of several other instalments. For emergency
dispatch and accessibility, equipments have mechanisms for rescue and security forces for direct and
easy access.
The results from the residents perspective is evident simply by walking the streets, free of congestion, noise or pollution, while ensuring a place to
park near home, without additional costs.
In sum, EMEL testifies that these implementations
improved accessibility, vehicle circulation and flow,
parking capacity, security and, generally, quality of
life. It helped fighting chaotic car parking, vandalism and the degradation of public space, obtaining
mobility, implementing a parking policy as part of a
broader transport strategy for the City of Lisbon
http://www.brisainnovation.com
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
Customer’s name: EMEL
(Lisbon Municipality’s parking Agency)
Country: Portugal, Europe
Completion date: Since 2002
SOLUTIONS INVOLVED
Roadside: Via Verde Parking System; Electrical Bollards; CCTV; Intercom;
Backoffice: Remote Operation and Assisted
Maintenance.
STRATEGY
To promote the image and usage of Via
Verde's OBU by providing additional services
and comfortable solutions, and thus contributing to increase the number of subscribers,
by associating added comfort.
AWARDS
2011 Winner (1st place) in
“Best On-Street Parking” category
EPA (European Parking Association) awarded
EMEL for implementing Brisa Innovation’s
integrated parking management solution.
[v2.201211]
OVERVIEW
HIGH CAPACITY AUTOMATIC
PARKING SOLUTION
BRISA INNOVATION’S CAR PARK PAYMENT SYSTEM
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
Customer’s name:
ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal and SABA
Portugal - Sonae Sierra, both with Empark
Country: Portugal, Europe
Completion date:
Since 2005 (Colombo) and 2008 (ANA)
OVERVIEW
Brisa Innovation was invited to implement, in both
of them, its award winning Via Verde parking solution. As a natural consequence, in 2005 EPA
(European Parking Association) awarded Empark
and Brisa Innovation’s solution as the "Best Specialist Parking Product in Car parks”.
CHALLENGE
The volume of traffic involved in both cases is a
challenge by itself; with over thirty entry and exit
lanes and 3.5M average customers per year in
SOLUTIONS INVOLVED
Roadside: ETC parking solution;
Backoffice: Remote maintenance
Colombo and a total of 1.5M in all three parks of
ANA's Lisbon International Airport.
As an additional challenge, the distance between
all three separate parking lots at the Airport was
also demanding from a technical perspective. In
this case, Brisa Innovation found a 3rd party park
management system from ZEAG in place, which
should be fully integrated. All of these should be
implemented without disturbing 24x7 vehicle
movement.
SOLUTION
Both solutions were developed guaranteeing reliability and availability, with redundancy elements
for increased service continuity.
In Colombo's implementation our solution handles
over 2M transactions per year, managing 10 entries and 15 exit lanes. As for the International
Airport solution three independent systems were
made available for assuring a reliable solution,
keeping maintenance and operation simpler.
Since 2005 and 2008 both implementations are
working smoothly and customer's satisfaction is
expressed in the growing annual figures. On the
first month 35% of users preferred our automatic
system and today this number exceeds 50%
http://www.brisainnovation.com
STRATEGY
To promote the image and usage of Via
Verde's OBU by providing additional services
and comfortable solutions, and thus contributing to increase the number of subscribers.
AWARDS
2005 Winner (1st place)
in “Specialist Parking Product in
Car parks” category
EPA (European Parking Association) awarded
Empark for Brisa Innovation’s car parking
integrated payment solution.
TESTIMONIALS
"This solution improved dramatically
the operations' performance and reduced coin and live money handling to
almost nothing."
Vitor Mendes
(Empark's Contract Management Director)
[v2.201211]
Lisbon International Airport and Colombo shopping
mall host the car parks with the highest traffic,
regardless one consider volume or daily rotation.
Both of them are driven by high customer levels of
services and share a common aspiration: to lower
the costs of park operation and minimise traffic
jams or queuing near the park access lanes.
SPECIALISED ADVISORY
AND CONSULTANCY IN TÜRKEY
O&M AND TOLLING CONSULTANCY SERVICES
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
Customer’s name:
NÖMAYG Joint Venture
Country: Turkey
Completion date: 2011
INNOVATION NETWORK
CHALLENGE
The Gebze-Izmir motorway will be the 1st road
project in Turkey to be procured under the Build
Operate Transfer (BOT) Model. The motorway will
be over 400km long, and will include a 3km suspension bridge over Izmit Bay, 26 toll plazas and 2
major tunnels.
The main focus for this BNV team, which included
Brisa Innovation and NedMobiel highly specialised
resources, was to support the NÖMAYG jointventure in the achievement of a satisfactory financial close. To this end, BNV have satisfied all of the
Operations and Maintenance related conditions
considered necessary by the financial advisors,
lenders, legal advisors, technical advisors and the
Turkish State. BNV have achieved this by bringing
knowledge and experience in dealing with Operations and Maintenance's aspects and issues, anticipating all project phases’ difficulties and the key
activities.
The concession to build and operate this motorway
was awarded to our Client, NÖMAYG joint-venture,
who appointed BNV Mobility as advisors for Operation and Maintenance (O&M) as a complement to
their internal capabilities. Our joint work has positioned the Client for a successful and timely Financial Close of the project, where Brisa Innovation
supported directly BNV’s successful effort.
From BNV perspective, one of the challenges was
to adapt its vast regional and local knowledge to
Turkish reality and context.
(Continued on back)
http://www.brisainnovation.com
BNV Mobility (Brisa Nedmobiel Venture)
I
Steer Davies and Gleave (finantial)
I
Sund & Belt (Bridge and tunnels)
BNV Mobility is a 50/50 joint venture between
Brisa, the Portugal-based international concessionaire with a market capitalization of €2.5billion and
NedMobiel, the Dutch infrastructure consultant for
operation and maintenance of complex infrastructures. BNV Mobility’s objectives are to deliver
highly efficient, innovative, technology-driven,
mobility and road operations and maintenance
services with a road user focus.
TESTIMONIALS
"Together as the O&M Consultant,
BNV add very significantly to the competence, credibility and delivery
capability of the Project. The O&M
Consultant has a major contribution to
make in strengthening an area of
weakness for the Sponsors"
Lenders’ Technical Advisors
[v2.201211]
OVERVIEW
I
SPECIALISED ADVISORY
AND CONSULTANCY IN TÜRKEY
O&M AND TOLLING CONSULTANCY SERVICES
(Continued from front)
SOLUTION
TESTIMONIALS
"BNV have added very significantly to
the competence, credibility and delivery capability of the Project [with a]
major contribution supporting us.”
The BNV proposal and approach was to develop
five main work elements: a Contracting Strategy,
an O&M Conceptual Design, an Operating Cost
Estimate, an O&M Fee Strategy and an O&M
contract. This was supported by using a thorough
and comprehensive risk assessment. Specifically,
the solution involved:
I
Development of the O&M Contract and O&M
fee including the O&M contract strategy with
appropriate risk allocation between the parties;
I
Development of the Operations Strategy for
the highway, including the strategic and tactical planning for operations, maintenance,
tolling, customer service and the motorway
service area business model;
I
Development of an investment standard operating cost estimate for the 22 year concession
period, including the cost of renewals and
contingency.
Bullent Esendal, OTOYOL AŞ board member
“[…] the flexibility of BNV to satisfy
our demands and their promptly
responsive approach and cooperation
with all project parties was invaluable”
Bullent Esendal, OTOYOL AŞ board member
The conceptual design for Operation and Maintenance was a key input for financial investment
(CAPEX) and operating cost estimate (OPEX), balancing both the pursuit of lower costs and customer service.
Our knowledge allowed the identification of the
optimal solutions for tolling systems and solutions
as well as road infrastructure maintenance. This
brought several savings right from the start,
through major changes in project design and implementation strategy, as these would also benefit
the road user in terms of comfort and safety,
while minimising operation problems such as toll
collection effective revenue collection and enforcement procedures.
A close presence to the Client was key, developing
a relationship based on mutual trust, knowledge
and technical confidence
AUTOMATING MANUAL TOLLS
BRISA INNOVATION’S AUTOMATIC TOLL BOOTH
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
Customer’s name: BOM (Brisa Operation
and Maintenance - Brisa's Operation unit)
Country: Portugal, Europe
Completion date: Since 2010
OVERVIEW
Brisa Innovation devised a project codenamed
"eToll", starting on May 2008 in Brisal concession.
Following this first successful implementation,
Brisa chose to adopt the solution on all its concessions, which ultimately resulted on over 300 units
fully operational throughout Portugal, as of 2010.
CHALLENGE
The basic challenge was in optimising human resources’ usage, fulfilling all toll collection scenarios.
Also full compatibility with already existing systems
and infrastructure would have to be assured. Lanes
should be commutable (human operated or automated modes); Tolling processes in place within
the Operator’s organisation had to be redesigned.
For certain toll plazas and periods of the day, not
only traffic can be extremely low, but the labour
cost is higher, especially during night time shifts. If
these toll collection points became fully automated, significant operational expenditure could be
achieved.
Besides all the technical and operational issues,
human behaviour and acceptance also had to be
cared for. A new working scenario with remote
operators, the customer learning curve, and the
social impact were raised by the deployment of
such machines.
http://www.brisainnovation.com
STRATEGY
SOLUTION
As Brisa's primary contractor for toll solutions,
Brisa Innovation team used its 20 year experience
on toll systems to devise the technical solution and
design the operation workflows and interfaces.
Both hardware and software projects were managed in-house, along with supplier selection, production and deployment. Our innovation network
also played a key role on specific phases.
Our R&D unit designed all prototypes and managed the entire tolling network management system and Back office software releases, along with
high-level maintenance support. Our Logistics unit
efficiently handled the product's industrialization;
Installation's unit dealt with the tight scheduled
and geographically dispersed deployment programs. Maintenance services' unit commits daily so
that the best possible operation levels of service
are delivered to the road user.
From the Toll Road Operator perspective, operational costs were significantly optimised, and the
transaction cost dropped. This implementation was
a case-study, so much so that other road concessions’ operators were encouraged to adopt our
solution
Operation of automated toll booths revealed itself efficient on its purpose - major
cost savings were a reality. Service levels
increased, since every existing toll lane is
now available without relevant cost increases.
As ATB operation was integrated on the
daily routine, opportunities for further return were identified: the handling of new
devices gave room for new maintenance
competences, and considering the operations scale, the potential for new external
technical services and partnerships is a
reality; moreover, considering the system's
highly detailed and real time cash monitoring level, money handling activities can be
optimized, thus reducing even further the
operation cost.
TESTIMONIALS
"This implementation enabled Brisa
O&M achieving the project’s efficiency
objectives in tolling operations"
Luis Roda (Operations, Maintenance and
Systems Director, Brisa O&M)
[v2.201211]
Operation optimization has for long been a trend in
order in Brisa. In 2007, following some field trials
on controlled environments, Brisa's Operation
challenged Brisa Innovation to design a fully automated and auditable toll booth. It would target all
toll collection scenarios, lowering operation costs
and increasing service levels for road users.
CASHLESS SYSTEM IN THE USA
BRISA INNOVATION’S FREE-FLOW TOLLING SOLUTION
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
Customer’s name: Northwest Parkway LLC
Country: United States of America
Completion date: Since 2009
ROADSIDE SOLUTIONS
OVERVIEW
I
MLFF (ORT) ETC Solution (2x3 lanes in
Mainline);
At the beginning of 2008, Brisa Innovation was
awarded a contract to supply a complete cashless
solution to Northwest Parkway (NWP) in Denver,
Colorado, USA. This 13mi highway, operated by
NWP, is now equipped with our solution, comprised of toll lane level equipment and a central
system that was developed by Brisa Innovation and
Via Verde Portugal. Additionally, the company has
also signed a ten year service agreement for both
lane and central systems’ levels.
I
Single Lane ETC Solution (1 lane in Mainline, 4x1 lanes in Ramps);
I
ALPR (Advanced License Plate Recognition);
I
Video Enforcement System.
The proposed main goal was «To setup, design,
develop and deploy a fully Cashless Toll System to
fit the NWP needs allowing to follow other local
operators' strategy».
From the operator’s side, one of the main goals
was to reduce operational costs. Also, as the adjacent highway E470 adopted a cashless system,
NWP decided to follow this new operational strat-
http://www.brisainnovation.com
egy. Manual toll lanes were problematic, since they
required intensive and frequent maintenance. The
new solution, 100% ORT, should also apply to
design and implement a new more cost effective
maintenance model. The Client expectations for
this project were that, through this new system,
chances for success would be maximised, with the
ability to grow and adapt more efficiently.
(Continued on back)
I
GO-PASS Website (www.go-pass.com);
I
Esys (Photo Processing);
I
BackOffice (Handling GO-PASS and Express Toll Accounts, System Reporting,
Fees, Parameters, Alerts).
[v2.201211]
CHALLENGE
BACKOFFICE SOLUTIONS
CASHLESS SYSTEM IN THE USA
BRISA INNOVATION’S FREE-FLOW TOLLING SOLUTION
(Continued from front)
SOLUTION
When using Brisa Innovation solution, all road
users, without exception, use the motorway without stopping. Also, for each transaction, the Road
Operator does not require any manual intervention. By using the system and paying for the service provided, the customer has several options:
I
STRATEGY
Brisa North America aims to increase its
market presence and capitalize its long
expertise as an O&M operator by implementing O&M services as part of an
integrated mobility concept strategy for
an urban area or corridor.
TESTIMONIALS
"These innovative tolling
solutions place NWP on the
edge of USA’s transportation
trend."
Pedro Costa (CEO, Northwest Parkway
LLC)
Installing an OBU (On-Board Unit): by associating it with a pre-paid account, every trip on
the open road toll plaza is automatically
charged. These OBUs are issued by E470, where
all transactions are collected at the lane level
and sent to E470 for reconciliation and payment.
usage of tolling points. All these alternatives were
meant to minimise the Road Operator transaction
cost and simplify the road users’ experience of the
toll road.
I
Optionally, the end user creates a GO-PASS
online account with NWP. Each passage uses
license plate recognition (ALPR) for vehicle’s
identification, which is then credited to the
account.
A 35% reduction on O&M costs was achieved,
thanks to a low-cost maintenance design and
optimising human intervention throughout the
entire toll collection process. With over 4M transactions a year, NWP benefits are:
I
The last option was designed for those road
users that do not need or want a predefined
contract. Brisa Innovation’s ALPR works to positively identify the vehicle, enabling that a bill is
sent by post to the vehicle owner’s registered
address, with the least amount of manual intervention. Within normally 30 days, the payment
can be reconciled, by accessing the GO-PASS
online website and crediting a bank card,
through a secured and certified data transmission. This option is more expensive for the roaduser, due to administrative costs.
I
Seamless road network operations;
I
Cost efficiencies, with a shift from fix to variable
costs;
I
Minimum investment option and system conversion;
I
Higher convenience, without the need to carry
cash;
I
Environmental beneficial (GHG emissions reduction)
Brisa Innovation’s provided a complete and integrated solution, covering several options for ensuring ease of payment, as well as secure and safe
CENTRALISING GLOBAL OPERATIONS
BRISA INNOVATION’S ATMS SOLUTION
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
OVERVIEW
Over 50% of the entire Portuguese motorway
network is managed from a single control room in
Carcavelos powered by Brisa Innovation's ATLAS
Platform.
More than 4.500 different road-side equipments
and well over 100.000 incidents a year are managed, disseminated, validated and analysed
through ATLAS. The Brisa Operations and Maintenance’s (Brisa O&M) operations model and ATLAS
have enabled to mature, from a motorway operator with dispersed local operations into an optimized and constantly evolving Operations Service
Provider for multiple concessions.
CHALLENGE
Customer’s name: Brisa Operations and
Maintenance (Brisa O&M)
Country: Portugal, Europe
Completion date: Since 2005
In today’s world of economic efficiency and specialized service providers, managing large motorway
networks from a single control centre is becoming
common. This same scenario emerged in Brisa
although by an originally different driver. Brisa
resulted from a privatization of the Portuguese
state motorway operations and was in charge of
operating and finishing the building of more than
1.000Km of motorways.
It can be said that ATLAS and Brisa O&M's
strategy since 2005 have been in synch.
Starting with a uniformed and optimized
central motorway network management,
in 2007 a leap was taken. Brisa O&M was
to become an Operations Service Provider
using ATLAS as one of its main tools.
Operations were managed from of a dozen regional centres with a set of 3rd-party non-integrated
tools, lacking standardized processes. In 2004, with
a growing network and not so optimized dispersed
operations, Brisa created a single control room for
its' entire network. This created unique needs and
opportunities that motivated Brisa to build its own
Traffic Management Platform. ATLAS emerged
from this unique opportunity and quickly began
solving problems of having a unified control room
and a vast network that most market products did
not solve adequately.
STRATEGY
Since 2005 ATLAS had a vendor independence strategy that greatly paid off in 2010
and 2011 in enabling quick and robust
integration with new road-side equipment
technologies. This allowed Brisa O&M's to
achieve great TCO reductions by using
Brisa Innovation’s own developed roadside equipment. The vendor independence
strategy also paid off in allowing Brisa
O&M to quickly engage in the operation of
concessions
with
totally
different
telematics solutions as was the case of the
Marão Tunnel Concession.
(Continued on back)
http://www.brisainnovation.com
[v2.201211]
In subsequent years other concessions joined,
whose contracts demanded increasingly complex
requirements, such as higher levels of services,
road availability, free-flow tolling, automatic incident detection, or traffic counting. These new
concessions should be operated from a unique
central control room.
CENTRALISING GLOBAL OPERATIONS
BRISA INNOVATION’S ATMS SOLUTION
ROADSIDE SOLUTIONS
I
CCTV (Video Cameras);
I
AID (Automatic Incident Detection);
I
VMS (Variable Message Signs);
I
AVDC (Vehicle Counters and
Classifiers);
I
Weather Stations;
I
ECB (Emergency Call Boxes);
I
VSS and LS (Variable Speed Signs
and Lane Signs);
I
Tunnels’ systems;
I
PSTN and VoIP Telephone Systems and Call Centre Systems.
BACKOFFICE SOLUTIONS
I
ATLAS modules;
I
Tolling Systems’ operational
interface and data collection
architecture;
I
Systems and Applications Monitoring.
(Continued from front)
SOLUTION
Brisa O&M’s control room operates around
1.500Km of roads and motorways for 6 different
concessions. Concerned with delivering a service
to travellers, the control room manages over 0.1
million incidents a year, relying on ATLAS Incident
Management without ever needing to worry
about equipments themselves.
ATLAS features a unified web-based user interface
and set of rule-based engines, alerts and synoptic
that guides the operators as they focus on incident information and use that information to
trigger equipment interactions such as VMS signalling or lane speed changes. Our client uses ATLAS
for information exchange and delivering traffic
information to travellers through web, mobile
application and other channels. After incidents are
resolved Brisa O&M handles through ATLAS a set
of BackOffice processes that include incident
validation, road repair management and insurance
claims.
Management relies on performance indicators
and business intelligence provided by ATLAS to
monitor and control the service levels, and
evolves their operational process.
ATLAS continues being one of the main responsible for allowing Brisa to grow, keeping operational
costs under control
SENSING THE ROAD
BRISA INNOVATION’S SMART ROAD SENSOR
OVERVIEW
remaining techniques have a smaller range of
application when compared with magnetic sensors
A reliable, flexible, wireless, compact, Brisa Innovation’s “Smart Road Sensors” uses sensitive magnetometer cells to detect and measure vehicle movement. Real-time data is transmitted to the traffic
management systems for advanced control and
information services.
Brisa Innovation raised the challenge for developing a low-cost, compact, autonomous and reliable
solution for multiple-environment applications.
This solution should guarantee two major funcionalities; a first one with the ability to detect the
presence and movement of vehicles, and a second
one to enable collecting macroscopic measures
such as counts, time-mean speed, vehicles longitudinal for classes and axes.
CHALLENGE
With the increasing number of vehicles travelling,
the need of road traffic control and monitoring also
increases.
This new system should also be:
The available technologies includes inductive
loops, video image processing, weight-in-motion,
pneumatic tube, infrared and magnetic sensors.
Inductive loops presents high installation and operation costs. Camera image processing requires
expensive specialized processor unit per equipment and is sensible to weather conditions. Other
1
Small enough for easiness of maintenance and
installation on the road;
I
Autonomous, in terms of power and communications;
I
Robust to resist adverse weather, heavy traffic,
chemical spills or even fire;
I
Reusable, allowing for temporary removal in
interventions on the pavement level;
INNOVATION NETWORK
Brisa Innovation, ISEL, Makewise
STRATEGY
Promote technological research, through
hardware design and development and
software development, validated through
field operational tests.
I
Flexible enough to allow
advanced detection, data exploring and analysis;
2
B
I
3
1: Sensor/Magnetometer; 2: Coordinator; 3: Classification system;
A: Communication (ZigBee); B: Remote communication (RS-232)
http://www.brisainnovation.com
Country: Portugal, Europe
Completion date: 2012
Cost effective encouraging
extensive use in broader networks, including urban and rural
roads.
(Continued on back)
APPLICATIONS
Designed primarily to monitor traffic on
highways and arterials, these flexible, lowcost sensors can be used to detect vehicle
presence and movement in toll plaza
gates, car parks, gas stations and other
access control areas, with significant improvements and cost savings.
[v2.201211]
A
I
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
SENSING THE ROAD
BRISA INNOVATION’S SMART ROAD SENSOR
TESTIMONIALS
"These innovative and flexible wireless traffic sensors
will allow broad coverage of
the road network with
traffic sensors.
»These will generate an
abundance of traffic data
that will enhance dynamic
traffic management and
traveller information services with significant potential to improve road network efficiency.
»The potential benefits include reduced traffic congestion, improved road
safety and security, and
reduced adverse environmental impacts."
Moshe Ben-Akiva
(Professor at MIT; Director of the
MIT ITS lab)
[...] the quick deployment of
systems of such sensors can
be very useful in situations
such as work-zone management or special events management.
Constantinos Antonio
(Professor NTUA, Greece)
(Continued from front)
SOLUTION
We deployed a joint research project involving
Technological research, Design, Software and
Hardware development, prototyping and a full
battery of operational testing.
This prototype transmits data using a low bit rate
wireless communications with low energy consumption. The installation and operation cost of
the proposed road sensor are expected to be
much lower compared with the inductive loop
systems solutions. The control centre that processes the vehicles magnetic signatures is a fundamental sub-system in road management to identify traffic load per vehicles behaviour/profiles/
classes.
The sensor technology used in this study is the
Anisotropic Magnetic Resistance (AMR) with a
magnetic resolution of one part in ten thousand of
the Earth magnetic field.
Two sensors devices types are possible:
I
a small sensor expect to measure 30 x 80 mm
that would only use one magnetometer axis
and would be powered by battery, having a
low cost production as advantage, allowing
for at least 5 years of permanent operation;
I
Another sensor architecture uses 3-axes magnetometers and high precision digitalisation.
It is expected to measure 125 x 80 mm and
last about 10 years.
CONNECTED VEHICLES
BRISA INNOVATION’S ON-BOARD UNIT DRSC 5.9GHZ/RSE
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
Country: Portugal, Europe
Completion date: 2012
INNOVATION NETWORK
OVERVIEW
Intelligent vehicles and infrastructures are the
ultimate goal to improve safety and mobility for
road users. DSRC at 5.9 GHz was worldwide defined for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-toinfrastructure communication services and Brisa is
involved in the standardization and test of networking management protocols.
FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
This innovative device will be exhaustively tested in
the project Intelligent Cooperative Sensing for
Improved Traffic Efficiency within the Seventh
European Framework Programme to support the
field operational tests of Lisbon and Pisa
5.9 GHz Brisa transponder is a lightweight and
compact full-stack prototype implementation
based on FPGAs for IF and base band purposes,
using 802.11a based transceivers for RF interfaces.
It can be used either as on-board unit or as road
side equipment.
CHALLENGE
The biggest challenge for this research and development project was to follow the standardization
of 5.9 GHz DSRC networking management protocols through the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
I
Brisa Innovation;
I
Aveiro’s Univertsity;
I
ISEL.
STRATEGY
The HEADWAY (Highway Environment
Advanced Warning System) programme is
promoting technological research, through
hardware design and development and
software development, validated through
field operational tests. This aims to contribute to road safety and operational
excellence using advanced technological
solutions.
Other Vehicles
Operations
manager
Own Vehicle
The OBU/RSE transponder device is composed by a
Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a transceiver, power amplifiers and appropriate antennas.
http://www.brisainnovation.com
Broadcasts warning to
avoid collision;
Send SOS request;
Uses traffic data and
routing.
Receives warnings to avoid
collisions;
Traffic data and routing.
Quick response;
Improves traffic flow
and safety;
Better data for control
and information.
[v2.201211]
SOLUTION
CONNECTED VEHICLES
BRISA INNOVATION’S ON-BOARD UNIT DRSC 5.9GHZ/RSE
APPLICATIONS
I
Warning location notification
I
Incident/traffic jam/road works
warnings
I
Decentralized floating car data
collection
I
Route guidance support
I
Interoperable tolling system
I
Access control/ Parking assistance
I
In-vehicle signage/HMI support
" Hard-brake and accident
were tested in urban
and motorway environments,
with 400m and 1000m
achieved respectively"
Results excerpt from published paper
“A 802.11p prototype implementation”
1
4
Vehicle OBU
broadcasts warning
Operations Center
receives warning and
activates response, including
broadcast of warning
Alert Warning
received by
infrastructure
3
Warning received by
nearby vehicles, which
broadcast warning to
other vehicles
2
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SELF-SERVICE LICENSE PLATE ASSOCIATION
QUICK NOTES
AND FACTS
Customer’s name: Estradas de Portugal
(Portuguese National Road Authority)
Country: Portugal, Europe
Completion date: July 2012
STRATEGY
Portugal is proud to welcome each year hundreds
of thousands of foreign vehicles. We also develop
the habit to provide innovative technological solutions, and tolling systems have been no exception
with Brisa Innovation leading a predominant role in
this strategy. Previously systems using charging pre
-paid accounts resulted in excessive management
efforts and poor results, as a consequence of a non
-intuitive process.
With this in mind, the National Roads Authority
(EP) challenged Brisa Innovation to conceive a new
solution. It should give each foreign driver the
chance to comfortably pay tolls on the recently
implemented free flow systems in former shadow-
In only 2 months, a complete solution was designed, produced, implemented and, more importantly, adopted by road users from foreign
countries.
CHALLENGE
The development project was a challenge in itself,
given the short schedule suggested by our client,
EP: in 2 months Brisa Innovation must have a fully
working solution along the national borders, able
to recognise foreign license plates and associate
credit and debit cards with these.
All this should be done abiding all security protocols and personal data handling concerns, keeping
a tight budget and low production costs.
For maximising the adoption by vehicle drivers, an
intuitive design and straightforward process
would have to be designed in harmony with the
Software development and Hardware industrial
design. In the end, all vehicle classes should be
able to use it.
(Continued on back)
http://www.brisainnovation.com
Brisa Innovation ambition is to be considered as a competitive technological partner, making use of decades of experience
in tolling, ITS and mobility systems. This
project is a perfect example of how our
combined knowledge and readiness to
respond delivers a solution perfectly
adapted to address the market evolving
and constantly mutating needs.
PARTNERS
I
Glintt;
I
Tecnocrimp;
I
Cubotronic.
SOME NUMBERS
I
2 month New Product Development
from scratch;
I
Site average of 1.3 new registrations
per minute in peak periods;
I
125.000 new users in 4 months
operation.
[v2.201211]
OVERVIEW
toll roads across the country, without the need to
deal with tag distribution.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SELF-SERVICE LICENSE PLATE ASSOCIATION
1 double-level
1 simple
1 double-level
1 simple
PORTO
1 double-level
2 simple
LISBOA
(Continued from front)
SOLUTION
FARO
1 double-level
2 simple + 1 for motorcycles
ALTERNATIVES
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Double-level unit for both heavy and
light vehicles;
I
Unit with rear license plate capture for
motorcycles;
I
Integrated DSRC tag dispenser.
MAIN SYSTEMS APPLIED
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Video Cameras and ALPR algorithm;
I
VoIP Intercom;
I
Certified bank card reader;
I
Resilient backup power supply.
I
Complete interface with 3rd party remote backoffice.
APPLICATIONS
I
Cities’ Congestion Charging Schemes;
I
Temporary visits in national road networks with video tolling systems in
place.
Given our vast experience working closely with
electronic payments processing and acquiring
agencies, UNICRE and SIBS, the solution fulfilled all
requirements, using certified card reader and
secure protocols for exchanging data.
Our Innovation system enables us to control all
steps involved in New Product Development, such
as Research, Development, Production (including
Logistics and Procurement for “best fit” alternatives), Installation and Maintenance. Through this
structure the design is optimised to guarantee a
whole life-cycle approach to the delivered product.
All vehicle classes should be supported, including
heavy vehicles and motorcycles. As such the product is available with double and single level alternatives. An adapted version was also conceived
and delivered for motorcycles, capturing rear
license plate instead.
In terms of future upgrades our solution is prepared to integrate a tag dispenser, as a complement for the registration of the license plate with
the credit card.
RESULTS
All this project was possible given the full spectrum covered by Brisa Innovation, from Development to Maintenance.
Having the internal capabilities and means to
manufacture allowed Brisa Innovation to adapt its
own industrial layout to the singular demand. The
smooth installation project resulted from our
experience in delivering turn-key solutions for
road applications, such as tolling and access control systems. Our mobile specialised maintenance
workforce enabled that this effort was achieved in
a competitive and cost-effective manner from the
Clients perspective.
As a result, the 4 sites and 11 units were installed
in strategic road entrances in Portugal, coming
from Spain. Those are responsible for a monthly
average of 31.000 new users, doubling in August,
during which an average of 1.4 new accounts per
minute were registered. On the first quarter a
total of 125.000 new users chose to use this system
Brisa Innovation
T: +351 21 423 3400
F: +351 21 423 3499
http://www.brisainnovation.com
Lagoas Park - Edifício 15, piso 4
2740-267 Porto Salvo
PORTUGAL
GPS: N 38.711122 W 9.311090