Monitoring an intersection using a network of laser scanners

In this research, a novel system for monitoring an intersection using a network of single-row laser range scanners (subsequently abbreviated as "laser scanner") is proposed. Laser scanners are set on the road side to profile an intersection horizontally from different viewpoints. This is done so that cross sections of the intersection are captured at a high scanning rate (e.g., 37 Hz) and to contain the contour points of the moving objects entering the intersection. Different laser scanners data are integrated into a common spatial-temporal coordinate system and processed. Thus, the moving objects inside the intersection are detected and tracked to estimate their state parameters, such as: location, speed, and direction at each time instance. An experiment was conducted in central Beijing, where six laser scanners were used to cover a three-way intersection. A digital copy of the dynamic intersection was measured, and, through data processing, a large quantity of physical dimension traffic data was obtained.