Shortly before the end of the year, with this radar system, InnoSenT launched a real highlight for traffic technology on the market, reinforcing its expert status. The iSYS-5220 extends the company’s previous portfolio to include a sophisticated system for demanding traffic applications. The iSYS-5220 development project was supported by Dr Eva Maria Buchkremer, who assisted the engineering team as the product manager. In this interview, she answers our most important questions about the market innovation.

 

For what purpose did InnoSenT develop the iSYS-5220 radar system?

 Eva Buchkremer: The new product is a traffic radar for detecting vehicles. We developed it primarily for use in complex intersection situations. It covers all relevant traffic monitoring applications and provides the traffic management with comprehensive data from the traffic flow.

Our customers therefore just need one product type in order to obtain all information about traffic conditions. They don’t need to deploy different radar solutions.

With the new product, we have developed a reliable alternative to previous traffic monitoring measures. Thanks to the precision, ease of use, robustness and lack of need for maintenance, any additional technical measures are virtually superfluous.

The iSYS-5220 radar system takes on tasks such as the precise detection of vehicles waiting at the stop line and records the vehicle queue. It also detects moving vehicles driving the wrong way or those clogging up the intersection.

It maps the behaviour of all vehicles in real time at up to 350 metres away. It also keeps an eye on people at the zebra stripes or cyclists. Furthermore, it is possible to count vehicles for statistical purposes.

Here, it differentiates between various vehicle classes and continuously delivers up-to-date information about road users’ speed, distance, position, and direction of movement. This data collection can be carried out at any point within the detection area. For example, directly in front of a traffic light or 180 metres away.

All these features are particularly useful for intersection management. The information recorded forms the basis for the efficient traffic management and planning.

What challenges arose in product development?

 Eva Buchkremer: Since the radar system itself needs to work precisely and free of errors in complex intersection situations, intense work was necessary. Because such performance can be implemented only with advanced radar technology.

The detection must be absolutely reliable when it comes to traffic situations. Incorrect or missing data are not acceptable. Because the system provides an information basis not only for traffic light control, but also for police surveillance measures such as cameras at red lights.

It was therefore a challenge to further develop our existing technology and get the best we could out of it for traffic detection. We made it our goal to stand out among the existing solutions on the market in our industry.

Our team had to implement a few technical features, such as tracking or the unambiguous recognition of stationary objects.

Because with the iSYS-5220, we are also daring to take the next step in signal processing and in terms of user-friendliness, this entails some entirely new tasks for our developers. For this purpose, we have built up additional know-how at InnoSenT.

It posed a further challenge to implement all our ambitious goals and the individual measures at a very quick pace.

What sets the new traffic radar apart?

 Eva Buchkremer: The product impresses with its precise traffic detection and ease of use. The precondition for this is the radar’s extraordinary raw data quality. The high angle resolution and elevation measurement capability contribute to this. These three aspects ensure precise recording of the position and differentiation of the individual objects. This is particularly advantageous for the system’s performance in dense-traffic or narrow-road conditions.

The tracking also benefits from the precision of the unfiltered values. Furthermore, this reduces the effort required from the user in signal processing and making adjustments. This eliminates laborious set-up steps on the part of the user. For example, lanes no longer have to be plotted, as the tracker automatically detects them.

Another special feature is the detection of stationary objects, which means the radar system lends itself to loop replacement. Thanks to the FMCW radar principle, the system also recognises stopping cars and does not lose sight of them even if a cyclist rides by, for example.

Thanks to its wide aperture angle and very long range, the product also covers very expansive intersections with up to 8 lanes. It looks frontally at the approaching traffic and can be mounted on a traffic light system, for example. This is accomplished without interfering with the existing infrastructure or any major disruption of traffic flow. We offer users a lot of highlights to flexibly attach the system and individually adapt it. With our GUI, we simplify the installation and configuration of the system to avoid potential errors during commissioning. In addition to the technical equipment, user-friendliness was very important to us.

Thank you for this interview!