Indoor tunnel geolocation system for seamless vehicle tracking.
N. Rocher, C. Laderrière, H. Cresp
Pole Star, Toulouse, France
Abstract
Freight transport sector takes benefits of current Global satellite navigation system (GNSS) current GPS and EGNOS, to improve monitoring of goods transit by rail, road and waterway. A communication link established between monitoring center and mean of transport is used to report current position issued from GNSS In the case of carriage of dangerous goods, information about the goods nature combined with an accurate position of transport unit will be essential to prevent accident but also for an efficient intervention of emergency services. Among the critical accident places, tunnels are one of the most dangerous and sensitive spots with a high potential of multiple car crashes. During the last years, many accidents occurred in Europe, under tunnel environment leading to tragic situation (ex: tunnel of Mont-Blanc 1999). The knowledge of real-time location of a vehicle with dangerous goods involved
in car crash will improve the emergency services first response.
Since satellite signals are unavailable inside tunnels, due to signal attenuation by the tunnel structure, Pole Star develops an outdoor/indoor location system that offers continuous vehicle tracking capabilities during the tunnel crossing. The system operates thanks to wideband signals emitted by an
infrastructure deployed inside the tunnel.
The infrastructure is composed of beacons embedding RF wideband transceivers that exchange with a remote in-vehicle location device. The location device is in charge of computing the real time vehicle position and forwarding the information to the monitoring center. Geofencing zones are defined at the tunnel entrances to detect vehicle tunnel proximity. Following the notification of tunnel proximity by the monitoring center, the embedded location device is automatically switched on to ensure seamless outdoor/indoor tunnel transition. Once the vehicle leaves the tunnel, the location device is switched off, the location being now provided by the GPS module. One key added-value of the on board component is that it doesn’t require any link to vehicle sensors such as tachometer or odometer. The device is then easily removable from one vehicle to another, allowing the freight companies to use the device with any vehicle. Finally, the infrastructure deployed inside the tunnel can also be used for people or asset tracking during maintenance operations or even the location of firefighters during the intervention. The paper describes the system component as well as presenting results of the test campaign held in a tunnel of Ariège in the south west of France with the first operational prototype of the system. These activities have been performed in the framework of the TRANSCONTROL project.
TRANSCONTROL has been selected in the course of the Fourth Call for Projects dedicated to the French competitiveness Clusters, and co-funded by the French Unified Inter-ministerial Fund (FUI), Grand Toulouse, and the Midi-Pyrénées Region.
