Summer Internship Project Report

Procurement of speed and vehicular data from GPS

Project report submitted

in partial fulfillment of the requirement of certificate of
Summer Internship

By

RUPJILIKA TIMUNGPI
(Roll No: 16-1-1-006)

National Institute Of Technology

Silchar

Under the supervision of

Dr. AKHILESH KUMAR MAURYA

(Associate Professor)

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GUWAHATI
ASSAM, INDIA - 781039
MAY – JUNE(2018)

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 CERTIFICATE

It is certified that the work contained in the project report entitled “Procurement of Speed and
Vehicular data from GPS” by Rupjilika Timungpi, has been carried out under my supervision
and that this work has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of a degree or diploma.

Date: 29-06-2018

Dr. Akhilesh Kumar Maurya

Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Dr. Akhilesh Kumar Maurya,
Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati for his constant support and
guidance throughout the internship program. His comprehensive knowledge and experience
helped me understand the project and provided me with a head start in my research.

I am very much thankful to Mr. Suresh Nama, PhD Scholar, IITG for his valuable guidance,
keen interest and encouragement at various stages of my project. The books and research
papers recommended by him helped me sail through the challenges I faced during my project.
I really appreciate his professionalism as a mentor and his work ethics.

I would also like to thank the Civil Engineering Department of Indian Institute of Technology
Guwahati for providing me with an ideal environment for carrying out my research work.

Date: 29th June, 2018 Rupjilika Timungpi (16-1-1-006)

Second Year B. Tech Student

Department Of Civil Engineering,

National Institute Of Technology, Silchar

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

ABSTRACT 5

1. INTRODUCTION 6

1.1 Research Objective 6

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 7

3. DATA COLLECTION AND EXTRACTION 8

3.1 Basic Concept of GPS Data 8

3.2 Field Site Details 9

3.3 Geometric Data 10

4. CONCLUSION 11

5. REFERENCES 12

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 ABSTRACT
Vehicle drivers continuously make decisions and execute them while driving on
a roadway. It requires perception, comprehension and prediction of roadway
conditions. Drivers intend to operate vehicles at safe speed based on the
roadway geometric features. These features are characterized by gradient,
horizontal curvature, length of curves and tangent sections, super elevation, etc.
Perceptive and consistent geometric characteristics of the roadway can ease the
decision making burden and thus minimize driver error. So far, majority of the
studies on geometric design consistency are conducted on isolated curve
sections in plain terrain for traffic with strong lane discipline.
Hence, the aim of this data procurement is to study geometric consistency of
roadways on mountainous terrain for traffic using the data obtained with the
help of a device called “VBOX”.
This work represents the various details of the vehicle such as speed, position,
height etc. in the national highway connecting Jorabat and Umiam Lake.

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 1. INTRODUCTION :
Speed is the main cause which is responsible for accidents on horizontal curves and the
speed is influenced by the road geometry, so the variation of speed with the geometric
parameters must be studied. The goal of transportation is generally stated as the safe and
efficient movement of people and vehicles. . To achieve this goal, designers use many tools
and techniques. Various analyses of the relationship between road geometry and accident
rate have made clear that the speed of a vehicle on any road section plays an important part
in accident occurrence.

Currently, the two speed-based approaches—design speed and operating speed—are mainly
used for evaluating design consistency. The design speed-based method is used by AASHTO
for evaluating design consistency involving selection of a design speed. It has been
documented that the design speed-based method does not guarantee consistency. The
operating speed-based method is widely used in Australia, Canada, and countries in Europe
and has also been proposed for the United States. The operating speed can be defined as 85 th
percentile speed of vehicles under freeflow conditions. The core of the operating speed-based
method is the ability to predict operating speeds. Most of the work completed is for rural two-
lane facilities, and little is known for four-lane highways.

Curved sites and Transition sections experience higher rate of accidents than straight
segments because of the lack of design consistency so these represents most critical locations
while working with road safety. To maintain the Design consistency, it is essential to
minimize vehicle speed differentials between successive highway design elements.

Several studies indicate that horizontal curvature is highly related to crashes. It was reported
that the average crash rate for highway segments including horizontal curves is about three
times the average accident rate for tangent segments (Glennon, 1987).Several models have
been developed to predict the operating speed on horizontal curves in different parts of the
world. However, there is large variation in model form, explanatory variables, and regression
coefficients. So, no model can be universally accepted.

1.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE:

The objective of this data collection and extraction is to study the geometric design
consistency of the mountainous terrain for the safety of the travelers while they encounter
the curves through that path.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Speed on horizontal curve plays a vital role in accidents. If the speed on the curve is high,
then the centrifugal force acting on the vehicle will be high and this force will try to pull the
vehicle outwards so there are more chances of accidents, skidding, slipping etc. so the speed
should be maintained to certain limit.The accuracy of operating speed models completely
depends on the accuracy and reliability of the collected traffic data. Several methods are used
to collect traffic data. They include automatic traffic recording devices (ATRs), e.g., loop
detectors, sonic detectors, video image processing systems, radar guns and other remote
sensing techniques.

For better accuracy and a wide range of applications, operating speed models require both
spatial as wells as temporal variations. Traffic monitoring detectors can capture the temporal
variation only; spatial variation cannot be captured by these detectors. Remote sensing
imagery provides intermittent image data and lack of continuous temporal variation. The
repeat period of imaging from satellites ranges from 16 to26 days. High-resolution imagery
(1-4 m) can be available at the interval of 1 to 3 days. This lack of continuous temporal
variation reduces the applicability of satellite image data.
On the other hand, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) provide a real-time spatial and
temporal variation of data. GPS technology provides high accuracy, low capital and
installation. The accuracy of operating speed models completely depends on the accuracy and
reliability of the collected traffic data. Several methods are used to collect traffic data. They
include automatic traffic recording devices (ATRs), e.g., loop detectors, sonic detectors,
video image processing systems, radar guns and other remote sensing techniques.
For better accuracy and a wide range of applications, operating speed models require both
spatial as wells as temporal variations. Traffic monitoring detectors can capture the temporal
variation only; spatial variation cannot be captured by these detectors. Remote sensing
imagery provide intermittent image data and lack of continuous temporal variation. The
repeat period of imaging from satellites ranges from 16 to26 days. High-resolution imagery
(1-4 m) can be available at the interval of 1 to 3 days. This lack of continuous temporal
variation reduces the applicability of satellite image data.
On the other hand, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) provide a real-time spatial and
temporal variation of data. GPS technology provides high accuracy, low capital and
installation cost with ease of data collection. Nowadays, GPS data has been extensively used
for traffic engineering and planning works due to several advantages over other methods
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3. DATA COLLECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION:

3.1 Basic Concept of GPS Data:-

GPS can be used to collect the position and time data with the help of an instrumented
vehicle.GPS data is collected with the help of GPS receiver. The main output from a GPS
receiver is position coordinates (x, y and z coordinates) from a moving and stationary objects
under different physical and traffic conditions. GPS satellites are the radio stations that emit
latitude, longitude and height coordinate data of the receiver at frequency 1500 MHz.

GPS system works on the principle of triangulation. Distance of the receiver from the satellite
is measure on the basic of speed of light and time taken by GPS signal to travel from satellite
to the receiver. Time taken by the GPS signal from satellite to the receiver is calculated on
the basic of phase shift between the signal and the receiver. Thus, time calculation is crucial
for GPS accuracy. Highly accurate clocks which can read up to. After distance calculation,
position of receiver is automatically obtained. This position data is transmitted by the
segment to the GPS receiver through the satellite. It is crucial to the GPS system must be
accurate and reliable to provide good positioning solutions. The reliability of GPS data can be
check by comparing the GPS data with any other instrumented method.

Figure 3.1: GPS system and its component (R. Zito et al., 1995)

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3.2. Field site details:
A stretch of NH-6 (Guwahati-Shillong highway) was selected for data collection. NH6 is a
four-lane divided highway situated in hilly terrain. A stretch of 48km (Jorabat to Umiam
Lake) was selected for the study. This road consists of sudden variation in alignment and
large number of curve. Out of total curves, 180 curves of reasonable geometries were selected
for study. Data description of selected curves is shown below.

Table 3.1: Data description of selected curves

Geometric feature Range

Curve length (m) 20-250
Radius (m) 20-320
Tangent length (m) 20-250
Gradient (%) -7 to +7

Figure 3.2: Data collection site (NH6)

Data were collected in the month of May under dry weather condition using a device
“VBOX”. Vehicles equipped with VBOX devices were used to collect the data. VBOX is a
GPS based device which measures the Doppler shift in the carrier signals coming from a
number of GPS satellites and calculates the time-tagged position, velocity, and acceleration
of the vehicles.

The data was extracted at four-meter intervals from VBOX device in Microsoft excel sheets
using Racelogic Software VBOX tools. The data sheet contained information about time
tagged latitude and longitude, distance traveled, corresponding speed, lateral and longitudinal
acceleration of the vehicle radius of the path traveled etc.

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 Table 3.2 : Extracted data sheet

In the following section, methods used to identify the geometric section using GPS data are
explained.

3.3 Geometric Data:

A highway consists of different geometric sections which are- tangent, spiral (Start), curve,
spiral (end), tangent. Imran et al. (2006), Othman et al. (2012) and Camacho Torregrosa et
al. (2010) used heading and curvature methods for finding the geometric sections. However,
these methods are not able to predict the geometry over the collected highway. So, the
geometric sections are first identified using field survey technique. Thereafter from the field
data the section variation points are noted. Now the data from the field and the GPS data
are compared and the various geometric sections are identified for each particular driver.

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 Figure 3.3 : AutoCAD file of the road
The position of the vehicle i.e. the latitude and longitude, at each point is extracted with the help of
the AutoCAD software.

4. Conclusion:
Most of the previous studies focused on rural two-lane highways mainly due to the extent of
the two-lane rural network and the high fatality rates on these roadways. This study aimed to
predict the design consistency on horizontal curves for four lane highways in hilly terrain for
the provision and improvement of safety while travelling through those areas.

The study involved vehicle data collection using GPS data with the help of the device
“VBOX” .This device proved to be more useful and provided better and accurate results
along with detailed driver information. Therefore, it is more advantageous over the methods
of data collection through Radar gun and video recording techniques which are quite
laborious and the involvement of human errors is high.

In the present study, the data was collected at 10 Hz frequency and extracted for 4 meters
interval. The extracted data was separated on curve basis for each driver using MATLAB
code.

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 6. REFERENCES :
 Bybin Paul, et al., Operating Speed Profiling On Horizontal Curves (2015)
 Fink, K. L. (1993). Tangent length and sight distance effects on accident rates at
horizontal curves on two-lane rural highways (Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M
University).
 Fitzpatrick, K., Elefteriadou, L., Harwood, D. W., Collins, J. M., McFadden, J.,
Anderson, I. B., &Pasetti, K. (2000). Speed prediction for two-lane rural highways (No.
FHWA-RD-99-171,).
 Gong, H. (2007). Operating Speed Prediction Models for Horizontal Curves on Rural
Four-Lane Non-Freeway Highways
 Highway Safety Manual (2010)
 Jacob, A., &Anjaneyulu, M. V. L. R. (2012). Operating speed of different classes of
vehicles at horizontal curves on two-lane rural highways. Journal of Transportation
Engineering, 139(3), 287-294.
 Jacob, A., Dhanya, R., &Anjaneyulu, M. V. L. R. (2013). Geometric design consistency
of multiple horizontal curves on two-lane rural highways.Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 104, 1068-1077.
 Krammes, R. A., Brackett, R. Q., Shafer, M. A., Ottesen, J. L., Anderson, I. B., Fink, K.
L., & Messer, C. J. (1995). Horizontal alignment design consistency for rural two-lane
highways.
 Leisch, J. E., &Leisch, J. P. (1977). New concepts in design-speed
application. Transportation Research Record, 631, 4-14.
 Lamm, R., & Choueiri, E. M. (1987). Recommendations for evaluating horizontal design
consistency based on investigations in the state of New York (No. 1122).
 Lamm, R., and Choueiri, E. M. (1987). “Recommendations for evaluating horizontal
design consistency based on investigations in the state of New York.” Transportation
Research Record 1122, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 68–78
 Minitab Blog, blog.minitab.com
 Misaghi, P., & Hassan, Y. (2005). Modeling operating speed and speed differential on
two-lane rural roads. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 131(6), 408-418.
 Wu, K. F., Donnell, E. T., Himes, S. C., &Sasidharan, L. (2013). Exploring the
association between traffic safety and geometric design consistency based on vehicle
speed metrics. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 139(7), 738-748.

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