IoT Based Tolling and Weighing System for Heavy Vehicles

Commercial vehicles exceeding the legal mass limit increases the risks of traffic accidents, damage to the road infrastructure and cause loss to revenue. According to the most recent crash statistics report released by the NHTSA, there are nearly 4,000 fatalities every year as a resul

Project Title

IoT Based Tolling and Weighing System for Heavy Vehicles

Project Area of Specialization

Internet of Things

Project Summary

Commercial vehicles exceeding the legal mass limit increases the risks of traffic accidents, damage to the road infrastructure and cause loss to revenue. According to the most recent crash statistics report released by the NHTSA, there are nearly 4,000 fatalities every year as a result of big-rig accidents. Among these statistics, some incidents are due to overloaded trucks that are a cause of numerous road hazards. Currently the system used in developing nations is manual and requires more human effort. At times human error lead to incorrect weight and toll assessment thus causing loss in revenue.

Utilizing the state-of-the-art concept IoT and Cloud computing, I-SINISTRAL provides automated transport weighing with vehicle identification as a 4 step automated mechanism. In the first step, a frame of reference is generated that support in correctly positioning of vehicle on the weighing platform. In the second step, weight of vehicle is measured using the load cell sensor, OCR technique is applied to obtain the vehicle identification, and number of axles are detected simultaneously. Lastly, total charges are computed in accordance with taxes and penalties (if any), weight slip is printed and data is uploaded to the cloud server. The proposed system is designed to weigh the vehicles accurately thus minimizing human error, increasing revenue and road lifespan while preventing damage and reducing road maintenance costs.

Project Objectives

The main objective of the proposed system is to automate the weighing of commercial logistic vehicles. This will enable to reduce human error, ensure compliance to axle loads and gross weight, increase safety measures, efficient revenue generation and collection, and increase road infrastructure life.

Project Implementation Method

The system consists of two main components. First there are sensory hardware along-with the microcontroller which act as a controller and coordinator. The sensory hardware includes cameras to get multidimensional images, load cell sensor to measure the vehicle weight, IR sensor for correct positioning of vehicle on weighing platform. Data from these sensors are fed to microcontroller which is then further sent to I-SINISTRAL software application installed on an Android Tab. After preprocessing, the vehicle registration id is captured, number of axles are determined and then toll bill is generated accordingly. The transaction is then stored to cloud environment through internet for central storage and remote access. 

Benefits of the Project

Commercial vehicles exceeding the legal mass limit increases the risks of traffic accidents, damage to the road infrastructure and cause loss to revenue. The system being proposed is to ensure the compliance of these vehicles to the weight regulations. By combining the power of IoT and cloud computing, the system will help to automate transport weighing system.

The advantages include: 

• Ensuring road transport safety and axle load control.
• Eliminate risks of accidents occurrence due to overloaded vehicles.
• Reduction in road wear.
• Efficient revenue generation.
• Time efficient and automated.

Transportation sector as well as national highways department are key stakeholders which can be benefited by the proposed system.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The system consist of prototype weighing platform on which sensory hardware (cameras, load sensor, IR sensor) are integrated. This module also has the necessary code to read and process sensory data. The other module is the main application named as I-SINISTRL which is developed in Java using the AndroidStudio IDE. The application processes all the data and provide the desired output.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Type of Industry

Transportation

Technologies

Internet of Things (IoT)

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

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