RILEVAMENTO DEI FLUSSI DI TRAFFICO MEDIANTE UAS

Abstract

The traffic detection is important in transportation planning and traffic control. Many technologies have been developed in order to capture traffic information in automated way, as volume, headway  vehicle dimension, speed. Often they are expensive and require work to install sensors on the road. UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) are very interesting instruments, alternative to the usual traffic detectors, because they can give different traffic measures and are not invasive in terms of works.  In addition, they are not bound to a fixed site, but can move into space by remote control. In the paper, after a short and general description of the UAS, their benefits are highlighted for traffic monitoring as for scientific experimentation and research. They allow to overcome some of the main limits of traditional technologies. The focus is then on some experimental tests in three different contexts: urban road, road intersection, motorway section. Some traffic parameters have been carried out and several considerations have been derived, concerning potentialities and limits of the UAS utilisation in urban traffic context.