Punjab Traffic Police's 3D traffic lights and intelligent traffic management is now a research for BPR&D
Ujjawala Nayudu
New Delhi, April 26
The Punjab Police Traffic Wing implemented some key modernization technologies for smart and environment friendly traffic management in the state. The successful implementation in Punjab has been compiled as a detailed research by senior IPS officer Sharad Chauhan in Punjab that will be submitted to the BPR&D soon.
ADG (Traffic), Punjab Sharad Satya Chauhan is the key officer who introduced the smart traffic management through their unique initiative of 3D smart traffic lights and intelligent traffic management system for the betterment of road safety and traffic management in Punjab. ADG Chauhan has recently prepared a research on the modernization and implementation of smart traffic management in Punjab that was recently submitted to the DGP Punjab.
The Punjab police traffic wing has initiated two unique programs to create platforms with the intention of creating a knowledge spiral and finding unique and tailor-made interventions or create cost effective solutions for the intelligent traffic management system for the state.
ADG Traffic Sharad Chauhan said, “Our initiative of Research Café, a brainstorming platform for police and entrepreneurs, startups and academicians helps police to behave like a "start-up" and bring creativity at the doorstep of the cutting edge level in the department. In the other models the government and the start-ups interact by "feedback loops" to create a product or service, while in the proposed methodology the police and the start-ups co-create a product or service
As per the research, Punjab police traffic has two unique programmes to create platforms with the intention of creating a knowledge spiral and finding unique and tailor-made interventions or create cost effective solutions for the intelligent traffic management system for the state.
The Punjab Police traffic wing has a Memorandum of Understanding with technical institution in the state for joint research and cooperation on most issues in the field of traffic research.
Premier institutes of Punjab, The Maharaja Ranjit Singh University Bathinda, Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, Guru Nanak Engineering College Ludhiana among others are working together with Punjab Police for inculcating scientific temper in road safety management, creating a dedicated cadre of researchers in the field of Intelligent Traffic Management and Road Safety.
ADG Chauhan highlighted the unique “Research Café”. The aim of the Research Café is to provide an informal platform where researchers, students can meet the officers, network, hone their skills, share ideas across academic and institutional boundaries and provide answers to key questions or even raise new question.
ADG Chauhan said, “The researchers are invited from the institutes with which there is MoU. If the problems have been identified in advance then open letters of invitations are sent to several other institutes with no predetermined criterion to attend the meeting. This builds a bridge of more ideas and increasing the confidence of the academia to approach the police. Many of the researchers who attend the Café have a line of investigation or research in mind and through a mutual concurrence the final focus of the research is customized to have hands on a “live problem” on the ground.
He added, “The researchers can conduct their investigation to help police with their disquisition or quest for evidence based policing (EBP) or secondly they (mostly start-ups) take up a project to deliver a product or refine a process based on the latest technological advances chiefly in the field of AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) or big data analysis. The most feasible and successful idea is taken up by the wing for implementation”.
Punjab Traffic Police implemented 3D Smart Traffic Lights for Intelligent Traffic Management System, a first in the country. This was done with a young start-up company Anukai Solutions (incubated in Chitkara University) which is an innovative and cost effective product with the capability to be a ground breaking disruptive technology challenging existing off the shelf products and services available in the market.
The innovation proposes a 3600 solution to curb the rising problem of traffic congestion. One of the major reasons for traffic congestion is the inefficient working of traffic signal timers installed at intersections. Presently the timers of traffic lights display a pre-set value which leads to wastage of time. There are scenarios in which a green light of “20 seconds” is displayed but there is no vehicle present at that particular intersection.
To overcome this, “InteLights” introduces an "Intelligent Traffic Timer Control" which uses dynamic signal control technology to adjust the timers of red, yellow and green lights according to the traffic density at an intersection. InteLights can use the existing CCTV cameras to gather live traffic video feed. It automatically evaluates the traffic density using image processing and sets the signal. This process is repeated for every cycle of traffic lights to keep traffic flowing smoothly.
InteLights can also maintain synchronization between the traffic lights of an entire city which can be used to create “green corridors” for emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire brigades, and other priority. The system can be synergized with existing application like Google maps or any other similar applications via satellite feed.
A single node of InteLights is made of a processing unit with networking capabilities which could be interfaced with any kind of CCTV cameras and existing traffic signal controller systems. By laying out a network of InteLights nodes, traffic congestion can be reduced in an area drastically. A node analyzes the information gathered by the CCTV cameras in form of images and estimates density of traffic & vehicle type on-Edge, thus, de-centralizing the computation and reducing the constraint on bandwidth.
The network is also capable of drawing patterns from the traffic information gathered at various intersections in an entire area/city and can be used to create “GREEN CORRIDORS” to ensure smooth vehicular movement. The application of “Deep-Q Learning” along with “Generative Adversarial Networks” makes different InteLights nodes installed on different sites coordinate with each other in real time and provide a smooth flow of traffic.
With the network of nodes installed, the current intensity of traffic and the status of signals at each intersection can be viewed and monitored live via a web or mobile application by the enforcement agencies. The dashboards and level of detail information required can be customized as per the requirement of the police agency.
InteLights can be adopted at any place where there is a need to relieve traffic congestion. This can be at the city level, a small area or highway stretch, or even at a small intersection in a colony, InteLights is not bound by the minimum or maximum area it can cover.
Improvements of 50% or more can be achieved in signal timing by this innovation .Daily commuters will have to wait less at signals.CO2 emissions will be reduced by an estimate of 25 %. In India, roads carry almost 85 percent of the country’s passenger traffic and more than 60 percent of its freight.
India suffers an annual loss of around $600 billion due to congestion (including fuel wastage). With the help of InteLights, each intersection saves time on transportation. An intersection controlled by InteLights delivers a cost benefit of around Rs 21,140 per day worth of fuel saved a month.
The traffic authorities will also benefit from the product as the centralized traffic management system and Android application will help in reducing of human effort and saving of manpower.
This model provides an android app which can be put to use for:- Accident reporting: Reporting will be done to a centralized location, Priority vehicle management: Use of Geo-fencing to detect priority vehicles, Remotely viewing signal timers: This will give a view of current traffic conditions and Provides data for effective planning and decision making for infrastructure and transportation planning.
The detailing of the traffic management and implementation of smart traffic policing has become a success in Punjab. The officer through his effort to submit his research paper wants the country to see the Punjab police model for implementation in other states where traffic is still a serious concern.
