• Induction Loops Detectors (E1)
Induction Loops Detectors (E1)

Instantiating within the Simulation#

An induction loop is defined this way within an additional-file like this:

<additional>
   <inductionLoop id="<ID>" lane="<LANE_ID>" pos="<POSITION_ON_LANE>" period="<AGGREGATION_TIME>"
   file="<OUTPUT_FILE>" friendlyPos="true"/>
</additional>

The "id" is any string by which you can name the detector. The attributes "lane" and "pos" describe on which lane and at which position on this lane the detector is placed. The "period"-attribute describes the period over which collected values shall be aggregated. The "file" attribute tells the simulation to which file the detector shall write his results into.

Multiple definitions may be placed in the same additional-file and also reference the same output file. Ensure that the additional-file always starts and ends with a top level of tags like so:

<additional>
  <inductionLoop id="myLoop1" lane="foo_0" pos="42" period="900" file="out.xml"/>
  <inductionLoop id="myLoop2" lane="foo_2" pos="42" period="900" file="out.xml"/>
  ....
</additional>

The attributes:

Attribute Name Value Type Description
id id (string) The id of the detector
lane referenced lane id The id of the lane the detector shall be laid on. The lane must be a part of the network used.
pos float The position on the lane the detector shall be laid on in meters. The position must be a value between -1*lane's length and the lane's length. In the case of a negative value, the position will be computed backward from the lane's end (the position the vehicles drive towards).
period (alias freq) int (time) The aggregation period the values the detector collects shall be summed up (default: whole simulation time).
file filename The path to the output file. See Writing Files for further information.
friendlyPos bool If set, no error will be reported if the detector is placed behind the lane. Instead, the detector will be placed 0.1 meters from the lane's end or at position 0.1, if the position was negative and larger than the lane's length after multiplication with -1; default: false.
vTypes string space separated list of vehicle type ids to consider, "" means all; default "".
detectPersons string detect persons instead of vehicles (pedestrians or passengers)
length float length of the detection zone downstream of pos (default 0)

Generated Output#

A single data line within the output of a simulated induction loop looks as following:

   <interval begin="''<BEGIN_TIME>''" end="''<END_TIME>''" id="''<DETECTOR_ID>''" \
      nVehContrib="''<MEASURED_VEHICLES>''" flow="''<FLOW>''" occupancy="''<OCCUPANCY>''" \
      speed="''<MEAN_SPEED>''" harmonicMeanSpeed="''<HARM_MEAN_SPEED>''" length="''<MEAN_LENGTH>''" nVehEntered="''<ENTERED_VEHICLES>''"/>
   ... further intervals ...

The values are described in the following table.

Name Type Description
begin (simulation) seconds The first time step the values were collected in
end (simulation) seconds The last time step + DELTA_T the values were collected in
id id The id of the detector
nVehContrib #vehicles The number of vehicles that have completely passed the detector within the interval
flow #vehicles/hour The number of contributing vehicles extrapolated to an hour
occupancy % The percentage (0-100%) of the time a vehicle was at the detector.
speed m/s The arithmetic mean of the velocities of all completely collected vehicles (-1 indicates that no vehicles were collected). This gives the time mean speed.
harmonicMeanSpeed m/s The harmonic mean of the velocities of all completely collected vehicles (-1 indicates that no vehicles were collected). This gives the space mean speed.
length m The mean length of all completely collected vehicles (-1 indicates that no vehicles were collected).
nVehEntered #vehicles All vehicles that have touched the detector. Includes vehicles which have not passed the detector completely (and which do not contribute to collected values).

The detector computes the values by determining the times the vehicle enters and leaves the detector, first. This implicates, that a) some values are not available as long as the vehicle is on the detector, and b) some values can not be computed if the vehicle enters the detector by a lane change - as the vehicle did not pass the detector completely.

"nVehEntered" includes all vehicles that were on the detector (even if they left by lane change or arrival or were still on the detector when the interval ended). The values that are collected for the vehicles correspond to "nVehContrib".

Visualisation#

induction_loops.svg Figure: A scenario with induction loops

induction_loop_closeup.svg Figure: A close-up view at an induction loop

Further Notes#