Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will monitor the traffic situation in Moscow and Tula Regions on M-4 "Don" Highway on a regular basis in September. Within six months, three times a week, in the morning and in the evening at rush hours, they will begin to fly on a designated route over the 1st section of M-4 (from 82nd to 203rd kilometer), monitor the traffic situation and transmit data on emergencies to the dispatcher computer of the automated traffic control system. In particular, they will report about the vehicle reverse movement and about stopping in the wrong place.
Real-time monitoring of the road traffic situation from the air combined with data from survey cameras will increase the safety level and the traffic management quality.
Avtodor State Company has successfully performed the testing to monitor the traffic situation using an unmanned aerial vehicle in 2018 and 2019. Specialists have tested the capabilities of the system for operational control of the road traffic conditions, and now a full-scale testing of this technology is being performed. The system is unique since its software allows recognizing an incident on the highway and transmitting information about it to the traffic control service and then to emergency commissioners during the flight. Photos at a height of 150-200 meters and the exact coordinates of emergencies are transmitted via a high-speed communication channel in real time.
For safety reasons, UAV flies from the leeward side of the road pavement along a designated route and under the operator's control. It is planned to transfer UAV flights to a fully automatic monitoring mode, without the operator's participation, as well as train the software to recognize other emergencies on the road.
