Optics and photonics used in road transportation

摘要

Abstract: Photonics is ideal for precise, remote and contactless measurements in harsh conditions. Thanks to major breakthroughs in the technologies involved, optical sensing is becoming more compact, robust and affordable. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview on the capabilities of photonics applied to road transportation problems. In particular we will consider four types of situations: (1) measurements for traffic analysis and surveillance, (2) measurements for road infrastructures diagnosis and quality assessment, (3) photonics in smart driving and intelligent vehicles and (4) measurements for other purposes (safety, inventories, tolls etc.). These topics will be discussed and illustrated by using the results of different projects that have been carried out at INO over the last few years. We will look at different challenges we had to face such as performing sensitive optical measurements in various outdoor illumination conditions and performing fast and accurate measurements without interfering with normal road traffic flow.!5