Estimation of bus traveling section using wireless sensor network

Abstract

One of the means to improve convenience of bus users is to introduce a bus location system that provides the users with such useful information as the present bus location and estimated time of arrival at the bus stop. However, since most of the existing bus location systems utilize the cellular network, the communication cost could become quite high. In order to alleviate this problem, we have been proposing a novel bus location system using a wireless sensor network that does not require any communication cost. This paper improves this system further, and offers a method to estimate the bus traveling section without the support of GPS so as to reduce the manufacturing cost of transceivers on board community buses. We have developed a prototype device of the system and conducted on-road demonstration experiments to verify the effectiveness of our proposed system, and it was confirmed that by our proposed system, the present bus traveling section can be estimated with sufficient accuracy.