Non-invasive meteorological sensors

LUFFT GmbH, which has partnered with Masstrans Systems (P) Ltd for its Indian operations, has developed a new generation of Non-Invasive Road Sensors (NIRS) that work on smart modular UMB technology. They serve as good remote road weather stations and pavement condition detectors. The NIRS sensors make it possible for road information systems to collect reliable weather information and issue early warnings to motorists and road maintenance operators, even in hazardous weather conditions. A remote road weather station can now be made with just two NIRS devices, thus making it affordable. Also, increasing the density of traffic detection networks on the roads thus gets reasonably priced. These sensors can also detect tyre friction values of vehicles which make them very useful tools in research studies of traffic flow models that use tyre friction as a key parameter for safe velocity estimation. Besides detecting the condition of pavements, the NIRS can also detect ice, snow and water layer thickness on the roads as well as the road temperature and friction coefficient. The temperature is detected by an infrared measurement technique.