Connected Vehicles

Framework for Mobile Data Collection

Nicholas Felker

Overview

• Depth sensor to record potholes
• Mobile application to collect data
• Remote backend to store and view data

Depth Sensor

• Examined depth cameras
• Microsoft Kinect for XBox 360
• Microsoft Kinect for XBox One

• Cheap
• Powerful
• Color, Infrared, Depth
• Windows only
• Needs high-level graphics

Final Hardware

• Alienware Alpha Desktop
  • 500GB SSD
  • NVIDIA Graphics Card
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • 16GB RAM

Test Images

• Color
• Depth
• Infrared
• 3D Reconstruction

Sensor Communication

• Desktop and Kinect outside vehicle (SensorDevice)
• Phone or tablet inside vehicle (SensorHub)
• Remote server (SensorServer)

• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi
• 4G LTE (Long term evolution)
• DSRC (Dedicated short range communications)

Payloads

• JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
• Messages can be sent between a SensorDevice and SensorHub, or between a SensorHub and SensorServer
• Attributes every payload has
  • Timestamp
  • Sensor level (Device, Hub, Server)
  • Priority (Low, Medium, High)

{"time": 1450309434, "priority": 11, "sensor_level": 1, "999": "Hello world"}

Modular Sensor System

• Optional attributes in key -> value pairs
  • Photo (111)
  • GPS coordinates (121, 122)
  • Plain text (999)
• Easy to add any sensor
• Attributes can be used to initiate actions
  • Ask a new device what sensors it has

INFLO Windows Application

• Phone finds a sensor and makes initial connection
  • Sends a SENSOR_PROIVDE request
  • Sensor returns a SENSOR_LIST key with its sensors
• Communication over Bluetooth using RFCOMM
• Images can be sent with Base64 encoding from a specific folder

INFLO Android Application

• Sensor can send payloads with various sensor information
• Android application collects disparate data into a single payload
• Displays useful information on screen
• Buttons for important actions
• GPS data can come from dedicated sensor or Android device's GPS

Server-side Application

• PHP backend
• Stores payloads in a MySQL database
• Simple web API to post data

Website Frontend

• A simple website shows data from each payload
• Dynamically displays data based on payload
• Embedded map with OpenStreetMap

Next Steps

• Integrating DSRC (Dedicated short-range communication) to send data from an Android device to a server
• Continuing pothole detection system
• Photos and other data can be sent through the current communication protocol
• Continuing development of applications to meet DoT specifications

Conclusion

QUESTIONS?