Use of magnetic monitoring of vehicles for proactive strategy development Szymon Gontarz ⇑ , Przemysław Szulim 1 , Jarosław Sen´ ko 1 , Jacek Dybała 1 Warsaw University of Technology, Institute of Vehicles, Narbutta 84, 02-524 Warsaw, Poland article info Article history: Received 5 November 2013 Received in revised form 4 December 2014 Accepted 18 December 2014 Keywords: Magnetic signature Monitoring Vehicle identification Crash detection abstract The proactive operational strategy in the transport system which is a parallel concept asso- ciated with the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) seems to be modern and right direc- tion of development. However, the basis for its operation is the ‘‘information’’ in the broad sense of the term, on the functioning of the transport system itself. As new technologies develop, there emerge new opportunities of putting to use a wide array of sensors which can deliver more complete traffic data but using complex matrix of sensors is often unjus- tified economically and confusing. The paper proposes use of magnetometers as an inter- esting alternative to pass the requirements of simplicity of application, minimum costs and maximum of acquired information. The process of obtaining the information requires anal- ysis of the quantitative and qualitative changes of the magnetic field. The conducted anal- yses demonstrate the possibility of using the passive magnetic methods for the purpose of monitoring of vehicles. Placement of the magnetic sensor bear out an important issue and was also discussed. During the experimental research it has been proven that passive mag- netic methods enable obtaining the information on the movement of a vehicle as well as on the vehicle itself. Estimations of such values as: vehicle’s moving direction, velocity, dimensions, clearance or mass having ferromagnetic properties and even the state of strain in a vehicle’s structure were confirmed in practice. In addition thanks to magneto-mechan- ical effects the theoretical possibility of assessing the stress occurring in the components of vehicles, which could be indicative of the volume of cargo carried. Moreover, the crash experiment showed the possibility of a collision detection using magnetic signal. The need for obtaining information increases from year to year, with information becoming the big- gest asset which enables both development and effective use of the transport system. Included researches, proofs emerging opportunity of more extensive use of magnetic sen- sors and the passive magnetic methods which could be applied in the modern transporta- tion system. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In the face of observable, growing load on the transport system, both in Europe as well as in other parts of the world, one can identify two methods of trying to solve the associated problems and meet the requirements related to road traffic effi- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2014.12.007 0968-090X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 22 234 8511. E-mail addresses: sgontarz@simr.pw.edu.pl (S. Gontarz), p.szulim@simr.pw.edu.pl (P. Szulim), jsenko@simr.pw.edu.pl (J. Sen´ ko), jacek.dybala@simr.pw. edu.pl (J. Dybała). 1 Tel.: +48 22 234 8511. Transportation Research Part C 52 (2015) 102–115 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Transportation Research Part C journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/trc