With real-time traffic statistics we hope to improve traffic efficiency and also reduce the incidence of crashes,' Cao said. A sensor must be able to detect, track, classify, and measure the speed of an object, while also being low-cost and low power consumption. 'The key problem in multimodal traffic monitoring is finding the speed and volume of each mode. MmWave radar can resolve the speed of a moving target much more reliably than LiDAR. LiDAR systems are able to 'see' in great detail, making it easy to determine what an object is but they have difficulty with movement and speed. This gives the system an advantage over light-based sensors like LiDAR. 'The mmWave radar is also different from other sensors in that it can provide relatively stable radial velocity, which is very helpful for us to identify the speed of vehicles,' Cao said.

The prototype device used a high-resolution millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar sensor that outperforms cameras in low-visibility conditions and beats conventional radar by providing a richer picture. In the future, they plan to further refine their model to interpret more complex data and be able to identify additional modes. This sensor also supplies the counts, speed, and direction of each moving target, no matter what the lighting and weather are like. In the latest report funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), Development of Intelligent Multimodal Traffic Monitoring using Radar Sensor at Intersections, researchers Siyang Cao, Yao-jan Wu, Feng Jin and Xiaofeng Li of the University of Arizona have tackled the issue by developing a high-resolution radar sensor that can reliably distinguish between cars and pedestrians. Conventional radar gives movement and position data for all approaching entities, but it's very hard to tell the difference between modes with any reliability. Some cities use radar instead of cameras, which works better in low-visibility but typically can't provide as rich a picture of what's going on. Some agencies use cameras to monitor traffic modes, but cameras are limited in rainy, dark or foggy conditions. So knowing what's going on in low-visibility conditions is essential for mobility and safety of all road users. And when darkness comes earlier in fall and winter, crashes increase dramatically. For pedestrians the intersection is a particularly dangerous place: the City of Portland, Oregon identified that two-thirds of all crashes involving a pedestrian happen at intersections. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) estimates that more than 50 percent of the combined total of fatal and injury crashes occur at or near intersections.

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