Overheight vehicles impact avoidance and incident detection system
A system and method are disclosed for overheight vehicle impact avoidance and incident detection. A detection subsystem of the system determines whether an incoming vehicle is clear to pass, depending at least on its height. The detection subsystem relies on distance sensors located along the freeway to detect the highest point of the vehicle and outputs an indication of whether the vehicle can pass. A warning subsystem receives the indication that a vehicle is overheight and provides a warning indication to the driver about the vehicle's inability to pass an upcoming structure. The warning subsystem may also perform a variety of other tasks, such as, for example, logging a variety of information about the vehicle and the incident, sending data about the incident locally to a central command, and generating reports.
1. A vehicle detection system comprising:
at least one motion sensor;
a plurality of sensors, said plurality of sensors each being either a vertical sensor or a lateral sensor, and wherein at least one of said plurality of sensors is the vertical sensor and wherein at least two of said plurality of sensors are coupled, wherein a pair of said lateral sensors are coupled, said pair of lateral sensors are positioned to detect a presence of a vehicle on a roadway, wherein the plurality of sensors are activated based upon a detected approach of the vehicle by the at least one motion sensor; and
at least one processor electrically coupled to said plurality of sensors and the at least one motion sensor, said at least one processor being configured to perform:
a vehicle presence algorithm that detects the approach of the vehicle based on an output of said at least one motion sensor;
a detection subsystem algorithm that identifies a lane of the roadway in which said vehicle is present based upon outputs provided by at least said pair of lateral sensors and detects a vehicle height of said vehicle in said lane based at least in part on outputs of one or more vertical sensor of said plurality of sensors, the vehicle height compared to a height threshold; and
a warning subsystem algorithm that receives an indication from the detection subsystem algorithm that an overheight condition has been detected based upon said comparison and provides a warning indication to a driver of the vehicle.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of sensors is selected from the group consisting of laser sensors, ultrasonic sensors, and time-of-flight sensors.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of sensors is capable of taking at least one measurement on the vehicle with a speed up to 100 miles per hour.
4. An overheight road vehicle detection system comprising:
a detection subsystem configured to determine a height of a vehicle and to compare said height to a set height value, said detection subsystem comprising a plurality of sensors placed in preselected locations to detect a passing vehicle and to output detection signals, the detection subsystem determining said height based at least in part on the detection signals output by at least one of said plurality of sensors, and if said detection subsystem determines that said height is above said set height value then a duration of said detection signals is monitored; and
a warning subsystem coupled to said detection subsystem, such that when said detection subsystem determines that said height is above said set height value and said monitored duration is less than a defined threshold, said warning subsystem triggers a warning indicator, and wherein the warning subsystem stores information relating to the determination of height and the comparison of said height to said set height value by said detection subsystem.
5. The system of claim 4 , wherein said warning subsystem further comprises a transmitter, said transmitter capable of transmitting said stored information to a receiver.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein said transmitter comprises a cellular data transmitter, a WiFi transmitter, or a Bluetooth transmitter.
7. The system of claim 4 , wherein said plurality of sensors is selected from the group consisting of laser sensors, ultrasonic sensors, and time-of-flight sensors.
8. The system of claim 4 , further comprising a filter configured to filter outputs of said plurality of sensors to remove noise.
9. The system of claim 4 , wherein said plurality of sensors comprises overhead sensors.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein said overhead sensors are located under an intersecting bridge or on a highway sign.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the overhead sensors comprise an array of sensors located over each of one or more road lanes.
12. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a correction function performed by the system by which said duration of each of said detection signals is monitored.
13. The system of claim 4 , further comprising at least one motion sensor, wherein the plurality of sensors are activated based upon a detected approach of the vehicle by the at least one motion sensor.
14. An overheight road vehicle detection system comprising:
a detection subsystem comprising at least of two laser sensors located along a road, and wherein at least one of said at least two laser sensors is located on each side of the road such that a signal is emitted from said at least one of said laser sensors on a first side of the road to a second said at least one laser sensor on a second side of the road, creating a pair of sensors having a signal link between them, where the detection subsystem determines a height of a vehicle based at least in part on detection signals output by said at least two laser sensors and if said detection subsystem determines that said height is above a set height value then a duration of said detection signals is monitored; and
a warning subsystem coupled to said detection subsystem such that when said signal link is broken, said warning subsystem triggers a warning indicator when said monitored duration is less than a defined threshold.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein at least one pair of sensors is a threshold pair of sensors.
16. The system of claim 14 , wherein said at least two laser sensors comprises a plurality of laser sensors located at a first height such that said signal link will be broken by the vehicle passing between said pair of sensors, and at least one pair of sensors located at a second height above said plurality of laser sensors.
17. The system of claim 14 , wherein said detection subsystem is configured to differentiate between at least two types of vehicles breaking said signal link simultaneously.
18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which instructions are stored, to be carried out by a processor, that comprise:
a first set of computer instructions comprising a detection subsystem algorithm that processes signals output from a plurality of sensors placed at preselected positions along a road to detect a presence of a vehicle on the road and determine a height of said vehicle, where the detection subsystem algorithm identifies a lane of the road in which said vehicle is present based upon signals output by one or more lateral sensor of said plurality of sensors and then determines for the identified lane if an overheight condition exists for said vehicle by comparing said height to a set height value; and
a second set of computer instructions comprising a warning subsystem algorithm that receives an indication from the first set of computer instructions indicating when an overheight vehicle has been detected in said lane based upon said comparison and causes a warning indicator to be triggered.