Solar-Powered RFID Reader Measures Road Traffic

Annese & Associates is providing some of the software needed for the pilot. This software will scramble the unique ID numbers captured by the readers so the system cannot be used to identify individual drivers, or to collect data about their movements or speed.

The portable device on Jordan Road is positioned on the side of the road; its two RFID antennas can be raised above the road to capture the EZPass tags on passing motorists' vehicles. At present, approximately 18 million EZPass battery-powered transponders are in use in New York. The mGate interrogator slated to collect the data from such passes is powered by a single 100-watt solar panel. Manuel declined to name the solar-technology provider but described it as an "off-the-shelf" solution.

Jeffrey Wojtowicz

Data from the mGates could eventually be integrated with data derived from existing permanent traffic-management readers, Wojtowicz says. Currently, such integration is not possible. "We are implementing a different data-encryption algorithm than the traditional system," he says, "and the data is being sent to a different location."

Researchers will test the mGate system deployed on Jordan Road until weather makes the pilot inconvenient (the operation of snow plows, for example, would put the reader at risk of damage). During that time, they will fine-tune the system as they evaluate read rates. This spring, the team will put six mGate units at various sites on the Route 4 area in and around Troy to prove such devices can capture travel times on local arterials. "Deploying six readers will give us the ability to monitor vehicles taking different paths," Wojtowicz says, and to capture their speed between several points along those paths.

In the meantime, the researchers are testing the reader deployed on Jordan Road for the optimal capture angle. "We can work on any changes we need to make over the winter," Wojtowicz says. "We want to prove the technology works—how reliable it is—and verify what the system's read rates are."