Weigh-In-Motion Sensor Based Electronic Toll Collection System

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel way to calculate the toll price for vehicles based on their weight at the time of toll collection. The proposal is based on the research that the road damage caused by a fully loaded vehicle is significantly higher than the road damage caused by an empty loaded vehicle. The implementation of this approach using Weigh in Motion (WIM) sensors to calculate the weight of the vehicle dynamically is discussed. In addition, this model also uses computer vision principles and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract the registration number from an image of the vehicle captured using a camera. This registration number is then used to query the vehicles database for vehicle registration and insurance details using Structured Query Language (SQL). These details are used to make the toll decision and determine the toll price for the vehicle. This model ensures that only vehicles which are registered, insured and loaded within maximum capacity are allowed to travel on the highway. The model can be integrated with the existing FASTag infrastructure used for electronic toll collection and the impact of this model on the toll price for different vehicle classes is evaluated.