Transportation Research Part C 21 (2012) 57–66

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Transportation Research Part C

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/trc

Application of inductive loops as wheel detectors

Janusz Gajda ⇑, Piotr Piwowar, Ryszard Sroka, Marek Stencel, Tadeusz Zeglen
AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This article presents the findings of model and field research into narrow inductive loop
Received 18 August 2010 used as vehicle wheels detector in normal traffic conditions. The efficiency of the solution
Received in revised form 15 July 2011 was compared with that of strip, polymeric piezoelectric detectors. The findings confirmed
Accepted 27 August 2011
that narrow inductive loops can be successfully applied as wheel detectors.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Inductive loops
Loop axle detectors
Vehicle classification
Traffic measurement

1. Introduction

The basic function of traffic measurement systems is automatic vehicle classification, which is indispensable in automatic
toll gates collecting money for using road infrastructure and in traffic control systems. Automatic vehicle classification al-
lows to evaluate the level of road infrastructure usage and that of harmfulness to the natural environment. Data concerning
the vehicle stream structure is necessary to plan road development and construction of accompanying structures such as
petrol stations and car parks. The automatic vehicle classification is also applied in weigh-in-motion systems, since allowable
axle loads depend on the number of wheels and their place in a vehicle, that is on the vehicle class.
The highly selective vehicle classification allowing to distinguish over 10 vehicle classes is based on axle counts and accu-
rate measurement of the distances between wheels. For example, the FHWA algorithm used by the Federal Highway Admin-
istrator, which is shown in FHWA (2005), can distinguish 13 vehicle classes. There are two factors determining high accuracy
of these quantities measurement for a wide spectrum of vehicles. They are accurate speed measurement and accurate read-
ing of the time it takes particular wheels to pass the detector. There are used piezoelectric detectors (provided by Measure-
ment Specialties), quartz load sensors (Kistler) as well as fibre optic, pneumatic (MetroCountÒ), resistance (Electronique
Control Measure) and mechanic detectors in various classification systems. However, their thorough description is beyond
the scope of this paper. A detailed presentation of different detector types may be found in e.g. Lesko and Guzik (2000) and
Klein (2001).
The used wheels detectors differ as far as price, functioning and installation are concerned, but they are based on a com-
mon principle that a detector is subjected to mechanical stress produced by wheels of a given axle. This is their significant
disadvantage leading to misclassification of lorries, whose axles are lifted when they travel without cargo. Other disadvan-
tages of these detectors are high price and complicated installation procedure.

⇑ Corresponding author. Address: AGH University of Science and Technology, Department of Measurement and Instrumentation, al. Mickiewicza 30,
30-059 Kraków, Poland. Tel.: +48 12 617 39 72; fax: +48 12 633 85 65.
E-mail addresses: jgajda@agh.edu.pl (J. Gajda), ppiwowar@agh.edu.pl (P. Piwowar), rysieks@agh.edu.pl (R. Sroka), masten@agh.edu.pl (M. Stencel),
tezet@agh.edu.pl (T. Zeglen).

0968-090X/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.trc.2011.08.010
58 J. Gajda et al. / Transportation Research Part C 21 (2012) 57–66

In order to remove the faults the authors suggest using inductive loops as wheel detectors. The following rationales are in
favour of this solution:

– Inductive loop detectors are a relative cheap solution. Such a detector consists of several turns made of an insulated cable
embedded directly in a saw cut slot in the road surface as presented by Gibson and Tweedy (1998). The cost of a single
inductive loop along with its installation ranges from several dozens to a 100 dollars each.
– The inductive loop sensor is still the main traffic data source (Coifman, 2001; Coifman et al., 2003; Gajda, 2001). As one of
the most popular automated traffic data collection methods, inductive loop sensor technology was first introduced for
selection of vehicles in the early 1960s, and today after more than 40-year evolution, it has become a ubiquitous means
for collecting traffic data. Inductive loop sensors are frequently deployed as single sensors, i.e. one loop per traffic line, or
as speed traps (also called dual-loop detectors). Usually single-loop systems measure volume and line occupancy, while
dual-loop systems are used to measure speed, vehicle length and to vehicle classification based on the vehicle length.
– Loop detectors are installed in the road surface. They are therefore highly durable and at the same time invisible for
drivers.
– Vehicle magnetic acting on loop detector parameters allows to detect and count axles correctly even if axle is lifted.

The idea to use inductive loops to detect wheels was put forward in the patents published in the late 1990s by Stańczyk
(1997) and Less (2000). In the patented solutions, the inductive loop constitutes an element of the circuit in a resonance
oscillator, whose frequency is modulated by changes in the equivalent loop inductance. Subsequently, an electric potential
signal, which is proportional to the frequency, is generated. In the signal, the effects of axle presence as well as interferences
caused by the chassis and its parts can be noticed (eddy-currents induced in miscellaneous parts also affect the loop equiv-
alent inductance). The lower is the suspension, the stronger is the interference of the vehicle parts. In extreme cases of low
cars, accurate wheel detection may be impossible.
To prevent the adverse phenomenon attempts are made to shape the electromagnetic field in a particular manner so that
it cannot act above the level of 20 cm off the road surface. This may be by installing several loop segments which are embed-
ded across a lane, connected in series and powered so that the current flows in opposite directions through each segment, as
presented by Less (2000).
The magnetic signatures obtained from detector cards equipped with inductive loop sensors are widely applied in the
vehicle classification and vehicle re-identification processes. Previous studies (Gajda, 1997; Gajda and Stencel, 1997; Ritchie
and Sun, 1998; Sun, 1998; Sun and Ritchie, 1999; Oh et al., 2002) have demonstrated that a variety of invaluable traffic mea-
surements can be obtained from inductive signatures using new detector card technologies. These studies employ the inte-

Fig. 1. Magnetic profiles of the selected vehicle classes: 1 – passenger vehicles, 2 – delivery vehicles, 3 – buses, 4 – heavy goods vehicles.
 J. Gajda et al. / Transportation Research Part C 21 (2012) 57–66 59

grated magnetic signature obtained from standard loop configuration of 1.8 m  1.8 m or 2 m  1.5 m. Such configuration is
not able providing information on the axles of individual vehicle.
Papers (Oh et al., 2003; Ritchie, 2005; Oh and Ritchie, 2007) describe the innovative loop sensor, known as a ‘‘blade’’. The
main benefit of the blade sensor is its capability to provide the information on the wheels of individual vehicle. The ‘‘blade’’
sensor concerns two oscillating LRC circuits whose induction coils (sensing and reference) are oriented contained within a
single, solid ‘‘sensor blade’’ that is embedded in pavement slot. The sensing coil is oriented toward the surface of the pave-
ment and the reference coil is oriented toward the base of slot. Both circuits are simultaneously charging to the threshold
voltage using an impulse function and than the signals rapidly decay to a base line asymptote. The differential signal form
both coils is digitized using A/D converter. A continuous stream of signal integers is generated by the blade sensor, which is
monitored by on-board microprocessor.
The magnetic signature obtained from the blade sensor contains both the vehicle body information, as well as vehicle
wheel information. The vehicle feature extraction is one of the major tasks of such signature analysis.
Diamond Consulting Service Ltd. (http://www.idris-technology.com 2010) offers the specific set of loop detectors, which
allows the vehicle wheels detection. The wheel information is extracted form the magnetic signature using dedicated data
analysis algorithm.

Fig. 2. The diagram of a measurement system interacting with a narrow inductive loop. TR – transformer, SG – bridge supplying generator, PS – phase
shifter, Amp – amplifier, Filter – low-pass filter, Dem – phase-sensitive demodulator, Axle – axle-presence signal generator, R1, L1 – resistance and
inductance of the loop.

Fig. 3. The influence of the leading signal phase angle in a phase sensitive demodulator on the output signal of the system from Fig. 2. The bridge
unbalanced state being a result of: R1 – a change in the inductive loop resistance, L1 – a change in the inductive loop inductance.
60 J. Gajda et al. / Transportation Research Part C 21 (2012) 57–66

All above proposed solutions are rather complex. They require the dedicated A/D converter card and microprocessor,
sophisticated data processing algorithms or complex set of loop detectors. In addition the accuracy analysis of the measure-
ment results of these solution has not been presented.
The solution presented in this paper provides the information on number of wheels of individual vehicle and their reci-
procal distances. The obtained magnetic signature does not contain the vehicle body information. The system is much more
simple and in fact may be embodied by using only flip-flops and counters. The hardware embodiment ensures the real-time
availability of measurement results.
This paper presents the application of inductive loop detectors as wheels detectors proposed by Gajda et al. (2009). A new
construction solution devoid of the above-mentioned disadvantages is suggested and the findings of the simulation and
experimental research are described. In order to verify the reliability of wheel detection, detection results for various vehicle
classes and errors in axle distance measurement in a system equipped with a pair of piezoelectric wheel detectors are
compared.

2. Loop vehicle detectors

Inductive loop detectors may differ with their shape and dimensions. They may have rectangular or rhombic shapes
depending on their function. Their width is determined by a lane breadth and their length ranges from several to twenty
meters (the solution used to count vehicles queuing before a crossroads).
An inductive loop is powered by sinusoidal alternating current, whose frequency vary from a few to over a hundred kilo-
hertz. Consequently, the alternating magnetic field is generated around the loop. When a vehicle (a metal object) enters the
field, two key phenomena occur. Eddy-currents are generated in the object elements as a result of the interaction between
the object and the magnetic field. This can be observed as changes in the equivalent loop inductance (and resistance as well).
Concurrently, the object elements, especially ferromagnetic ones (e.g. steel wheel rims located in the immediate vicinity of a
loop), act as a core, modifying the equivalent loop inductance.

Fig. 4. Changes in inductive loop parameters in time function (a) and filter output signals in the system from Fig. 2 generated by resistance change DR1 (b)
and inductance change DL1 (c) for various phase shifter settings.
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In the solution presented by the authors, a loop operates in a bridge system initially balanced for the situation in which
there is no vehicle above it. Due to the change of equivalent loop parameters the bridge becomes unbalanced. An unbalanced
signal whose amplitude has been modulated is amplified, demodulated, filtered and in the manner converted into an alter-
nating voltage signal. The signal is called a magnetic profile, as its shape is dependent on the profile of chassis (the distance
between particular chassis components, axle and wheel rims and the loop surface). Each vehicle class has its own character-
istic magnetic profile as presented by Gajda and Sroka (2000) and Gajda et al. (2001). In Fig. 1, magnetic profiles of several
basic vehicle classes are presented.
The main visible effects are those caused by eddy-currents, which is related to vehicle geometrical dimensions. Hence, it
is difficult to notice the impact of wheel rims or axles in standard magnetic profiles (Fig. 1). Their influence is discernible in
profiles of vehicles with a high suspension (curve 4 in Fig. 1).

3. Loop wheel detectors

To apply inductive loop detectors as wheel detectors, the relation between the two phenomena responsible for the mag-
netic profile occurrence should be changed. The impact on the equivalent loop inductance of eddy-currents ought to be
weakened, whereas that of steel wheel rims and metal construction elements used in tyres (the core effect) strengthened.
This may be achieved by selecting the right frequency of the current powering a loop, changing loop dimensions and mod-
ifying the measurement system properly.

Fig. 5. Real, analogue and digital signals generated in a system interacting with a narrow inductive loop (10 cm). 1 – An analogue signal representing a 5-
axial vehicle, 2 – a digital signal enabling axle count and measurement of the distance between axles, 3 – an analogue signal representing a biaxial
passenger vehicle, 4 – an analogue signal of a 5-axial vehicle, in which the third axle has been lifted.
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It is expedient to lower the frequency of powering current to 4–7 kHz, since the lower the frequency is, the weaker the
impact of eddy-currents. Furthermore, there is little correlation between frequency and the core effect.
The area the electromagnetic field affects is smaller when a loop is considerably shortened to 10–30 cm in the traffic
direction. Consequently, before it reaches the chassis, the electromagnetic field is significantly weakened. The higher a sus-
pension (e.g. in heavy goods vehicles) is, the weaker the effect generated by eddy-currents is. Concurrently, rims of a wheel
are under the direct influence of the electromagnetic field and the core effect they generate remains unaltered.
In the solution suggested in this paper, the changes in loop parameters modulate the amplitude of an bridge unbalancing
signal. A diagram of the measurement system is shown in Fig. 2.
The introduction of a phase shifter (PS) into a measurement system allows one to select the phase of the leading signal in
a phase-sensitive demodulator so that one of the phenomena (the change in resistance or the resultant change in induc-
tance) is enhanced. For instance, if the bridge system has been unbalanced due to constant increase in resistance DR1 (with
reference to the balanced state), a constant voltage signal will occur at the filter output. The signal value (being able to take
positive and negative values) depends on the value of phase shift angle introduced by the phase shifter (PS). For the angle
special values the signal has the zero value at the measurement system output (Fig. 3). So is the value when the bridge is

Table 1
Vehicle classification efficiency in system with two narrow inductive loops.

Number of axles detected in system with narrow inductive loops

1 axle 2 axles 3 axles 4 axles 5 axles 6 axles and more
Vehicle class
2-Axles vehicle with alloy wheels 0.088 0.88 ± 0.02 0.029 0.00 0.0 0.0
2-Axles vehicle 0.007 0.955 ± 0.005 0.038 0.0 0.0 0.0
3-Axles vehicle 0.0 0.0 0.92 ± 0.08 0.0 0.083 0.0
4-Axles vehicle 0.0 0.014 0.0 0.96 ± 0.02 0.029 0.0
5-Axles vehicle 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.005 0.990 ± 0.007 0.005
5-Axles vehicle with lifted axle 0.026 0.230 0.64 ± 0.08 0.103

Fig. 6. Diagrams showing sensor systems (a) in the examined measurement site and (b) reference measurement site. 1 – A standard inductive loop, 2 –
narrow inductive loops, 3 – strip piezoelectric axle detectors.
 J. Gajda et al. / Transportation Research Part C 21 (2012) 57–66 63

unbalanced owing to inductance alteration DL1. It is worth noticing that the angle values (PS) for which the impact of one
parameter is zeroed are accompanied by the maximal sensitivity to the other parameter.
In Fig. 3, phase shift angles which zero the impact of one of the two phenomena are marked. Each of the two phenomena
responsible for the magnetic profile occurrence may be measured independently. The wheel detection certainty is consider-
ably enhanced when the phase shifter is well set.
The value of the phase angle, which guarantees zeroing of the influence of any of the two phenomena, is obviously deter-
mined by the relation between the phase angle of the unbalanced bridge signal and the supplying signal. The phase angle is

Fig. 7. Histograms with errors in vehicle speed measurement.

64 J. Gajda et al. / Transportation Research Part C 21 (2012) 57–66

mainly dependent on the frequency of the signal supplying the bridge, which is fixed while designing a system and remains
unaltered during measurement. However, the phase angle is little affected by changes in inductive loop equivalent param-
eters, which are caused by a passing vehicle and constitute less than 1% of the nominal values of the parameters.
The above-mentioned conclusions confirm the characteristics shown in Fig. 4. This figure illustrates changes in the output
signal of the system depicted in Fig. 2, which are caused by independent alterations in the inductive loop inductance and
resistance. The process of changing inductive loop parameters is presented in Fig. 4a. In Fig. 4b and c, the time course of
a signal at the filter output (Fig. 2) is shown. The two time courses of an output signal represent different settings of the
phase shifter and allow one to follow changes in both parameters independently. The angle values are given in respective
figures.
Fig. 5 shows exemplary analogue and digital signals generated in a real system interacting with a 10 cm-wide loop. The
system is sensitive enough to detect wheels both in passenger vehicles (with a low suspension) and heavy goods vehicles
(which is easier due to the fact that the interference of a high suspension is weaker). The fact that such a system may suc-
cessfully count heavy goods vehicle axles which have been lifted (curve 4) is a significant advantage of the solution com-
pared with an analogous system using load sensors. Thus, the application of the proposed system allows correct vehicle
classification even in the case of lifted axles. On the other hand, little sensitivity to wheel rims made of light metal alloys,
which renders accurate axle count impossible, is undoubtedly a considerable disadvantage of this solution. To test the effec-
tiveness of alloy wheels detection the measurement experiment with the 340 alloy rimmed cars was conducted. More than
88% cars was properly classified as two-axle vehicles (see Table 1).

4. Discussion

Experiments were conducted in order to define errors in speed measurement and to count axles. A measurement system
comprising two narrow inductive loops and one wide inductive loop was applied. The narrow loops were used as wheel

Fig. 8. The results obtained by the system comprising piezoelectric axle detectors (axis x) and two loop axle detectors (axis y) which measured distances
between axles 3 and 4 and 4 and 5. 1 – Measurement points, 2 –the area border.

Fig. 9. The probability density distribution of the measurement results for the distance between axles 4 and 5. 1 – The nominal distance of 1.31 m, 2 – the
results for the system with two piezoelectric load sensors, 3 – the results for the system with two narrow loops.
 J. Gajda et al. / Transportation Research Part C 21 (2012) 57–66 65

detectors, whereas the wide loop helped assign axles to a given vehicle. These three loops are supplied with alternating volt-
ages. The narrow loops are supplied at frequency 5 kHz and 6.5 kHz respectively, whereas the larger loop is supplied at fre-
quency 16 kHz. These frequency shifts together with applied phase-sensitive demodulator allow to avoid the cross-talk
effects between these sensors. A diagram of the measurement site is shown in Fig. 6a.
The test results were compared with results obtained using a reference system consisting of two piezoelectric wheel
detectors (Fig. 6b). The research was conducted in normal traffic conditions and embraced 850 vehicles. Fig. 7 depicts his-
tograms with errors in speed measurement for all the examined vehicles as well as for particular vehicle classes.
The relative r.m.s. error in speed measurement was 5.5% for cars, 5.3% for vans and 1.2% for trucks respectively.
The uncertainty of axle distance measurement may be assessed comparing results obtained for a chosen vehicle class
with the data published by vendors. For example, results for biaxial tractors with 3-axial semitrailers can be verified in
the manner. The distances between semitrailer axles 3–4 and 4–5 are 131 cm. The system equipped with piezoelectric axle
detectors measures the distance with an error not exceeding 2 cm. The error is frequently caused by changeable load and
tyre deflection.
In Fig. 8, measurement results of axle distances are presented. A system comprising piezoelectric wheel (axis x in the
Fig. 8) and two loop wheel detectors (axis y in the Fig. 8) measured distances between axles 3 and 4 and 4 and 5.
The standard deviation in axle distance measurements in both systems is 1.04 cm for the system with piezoelectric wheel
detectors and 4.67 cm for the system with loop wheel detectors. Histograms in Fig. 9 presenting results of distance measure-
ments support this conclusion.
The special field experiment has been conducted to test the system ability of wheel detection, as well as its reliability.
More than 2400 vehicles passed the measurement site during this experiment. These vehicles belong to different classes
as it was indicated in Table 1. The wheel detection reliability was established by referring the number of vehicles with prop-
erly counted axles to the total number of vehicles in distinguished class. The results are presented in Table 1. The best result
is in the class of 5-axles vehicles (99% properly classified vehicles). The worst result was obtained in the class of 5-axles vehi-
cles with lifted axle. Only 64% of those were correctly classified.

5. Conclusions

The research proved that loop detectors can be used to detect wheels and count axles as well as to measure distances
between axles in normal traffic conditions. The uncertainty of such measurements is higher than that of results obtained
while applying piezoelectric wheel detectors. However the proposed solution is less expensive, easier to install and operate.
Loop detectors can be stuck directly on the road surface, which is very convenient for short-term measurements, for instance
24-h measurements. Another advantage of loop detectors is their ability to detect lifted axles of heavy goods vehicles, which
allows their proper classification.

Acknowledgement

The research was conducted as part of Project No. N N505 375537 financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher
Education.

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