Smart Infrastructures and Intelligent Transportation Systems
- [Boston, Massachusetts - Forbes]
Embrace Emerging Technologies To Build Your City of Tomorrow
- Overview
Smart cities are technologically modernized urban areas that use different types of electronic methods, voice-activated methods and sensors to collect specific data.
The information gained from this data is used to effectively manage assets, resources and services; in return, the data is used to improve operations across the city. This includes data collected from citizens, equipment, buildings and assets that are processed and analyzed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities, water networks, waste, crime detection, information systems, schools, books museums, hospitals and other community services.
Smart cities are defined as smart both in the way governments use technology and in the way they monitor, analyze, plan and manage cities.
- Smart Infrastructure
A smart infrastructure can be defined as a cyber-physical system that provides holistic management of all the elements it contains through different technological tools that help compile and analyze data to achieve efficiency, sustainability, productivity and safety goals.
A smart infrastructure is an intelligent system that uses a data feedback loop to improve a decision about something. A system that can monitor, measure, analyze, communicate, and act on data collected by sensors.
Smart infrastructure is not only based on its physical structure (cables, sensors, etc.), but also on four principles: data, analytics, feedback and adaptability.
- Data: It is the basic element required for the operation of intelligent systems and the raw material required for the operation of intelligent infrastructure.
- Analysis: Information analysis is key to obtaining information useful for decision making.
- Feedback: Data feedback loops are the foundation of any intelligent system. This feedback is evident when information is gathered about how an asset is used, and that information is used to improve how the system operates.
- Adaptability: Intelligent systems can adapt not only to current needs, but also to future needs.
- Intelligent Transportation Systems
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are advanced applications that do not embody intelligence per se, and are designed to provide innovative services related to different modes of transportation and traffic management, enabling various users to better understand the situation and make them safer, More coordinated and "smarter" use of transport networks. Theoretical, experimental and operational aspects of electrical and electronic engineering and information technology as applied to intelligent transportation systems (ITS).
Although ITS may cover all modes of transport, European Union Directive 2010/40/EU (7 July 2010) defines ITS as systems where information and communication technologies are used in the field of road transport, including infrastructure, vehicles and users, as well as traffic Management and mobility management, and interfaces with other modes of transportation.
- Smart Traffic Light
A smart traffic light is a networked vehicle traffic control system that is able to adjust traffic light controls based on information gathered from sensors, edge devices, and video systems.
At intersections, smart traffic lights look just like regular traffic lights except for additional hardware elements like IoT sensors and/or connected TV cameras. On the backend, the smart traffic light system is connected to a cloud-based traffic management platform. They are often powered by predictive algorithms for dynamically adjusting traffic signals.
Smart traffic light systems cannot magically solve all road problems such as congestion, accidents and violations. But they're a better preventive measure than traditional traffic lights.
- For More Information
- [National Renewable Energy Laboratory]: Transportation Research.
- [The U.S. Department of Transportation]: Intelligent Transportation Systems.
[More to come ...]
