Skip to main content

Nortech and Idris vehicle classification technology trialled for tolling in China

South Africa-headquartered Nortech International, in conjunction with Beijing Navigator Technologies, has announced the conclusion of a successful trial of high accuracy vehicle classification for tolling on the Hebei Shi-huang Expressway in Hebei Province of China.
May 18, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
South Africa-headquartered 3560 Nortech International, in conjunction with Beijing Navigator Technologies, has announced the conclusion of a successful trial of high accuracy vehicle classification for tolling on the Hebei Shi-huang Expressway in Hebei Province of China.

Nortech International, which has become one of the world’s largest suppliers of inductive loop detectors with an installed based in excess of one million channels, became a certified 36 Idris Technology Partner of Diamond Consulting from UK in 2006 and under license supply the patented Idris Technology software onboard the Nortech developed hardware as solutions for traffic detection, data collection and incident detection for applications such as Vehicle Classification, Tolling, Vehicle Enforcement, Incident Detection, Vehicle Profiling and Journey Time.

Last month, Nortech, together with its local distributor Beijing Navigator Technologies (BNT), and supported by DCS, undertook the installation of the IDR206, rack mounted hardware, with Idris AT600 to classify vehicles according to the specifications released by the China Ministry of Transportation and National Development and Reform Committee.

This trial entailed the accurate classification of vehicles in 5 classes determined by the number of axles, number of wheels per axle and axle base.

BNT, together with the owners of the expressway, submitted a proposal to the provincial Department of Transport for the trial which is entered into as a research and confirmation project. Zhang Kairu , president of BNT went on to say in his motivation for the project approval,  that “in order to fully test the claimed accuracies of the system and also fully demonstrate the worthiness of the system under China’s current tolling network and data collection practice, a real-time site with live data was the only way to verify the supremacy of the technology. Furthermore, to explore the practicality of deploying the system across China’s expressway network.”

The results of the trial, supported by the raw data, will be presented to the owners of the Hebei Shi-huang Expressway before it is presented to the Hebei Department of Transportation and Highway administration bureau. Positive acceptance by these bureaus could lead to the results also been presented to the China Ministry of Transportation for appraisal under the Technology Innovation Awards, but the ultimate goal is that the system will be put forward at a national level as a solution to current issues that the tolling authorities are facing, particularly with providing reliable and accurate information.

According to Zhang “Using the IDRIS solution, the  reliability and precision of data acquisition and vehicle classification, when applied to our existing road toll network, will increase the work efficiency, achieve precise tolling information and eliminate fraud.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Calculating the cost of stellar solutions
    August 10, 2016
    The increasing availability and accuracy of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is opening up low-cost options in many areas as David Crawford finds out. Boosting commercialisation of European global navigation satellite system (EGNSS) technologies for ITS initially depends heavily on demonstrating competitive and cost/benefit advantages obtainable from the deployment of EGNOS (the current European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service), and ultimately the EU’s Galileo constellation (see box). So,
  • Kapsch ‘opens the way’ to interoperability
    July 30, 2013
    Richard Turnock, chief technology officer of Kapsch TrafficCom North America explains what advantages its newly-opened TDM protocol can offer as a US-wide standard for tolling interoperability. The electronic tolling industry across the United States is evolving. Historically it was characterised by clusters of interoperability where a motorist may be able to use the same transponder across a large area, such as the 15-State E-ZPass system, or be confined to a single State system. Now, however, the industry
  • IRD trusts in AI for traffic count and classification
    October 13, 2020
    IRD has announced its iTheia video-based traffic counting and classifying system that uses artificial intelligence (AI). Instead of classifying vehicles based solely on axle spacing or vehicle length parameters, iTheia classes vehicles based on visual input and a machine learning algorithm.
  • Terrestrial solution to stellar shortcomings
    December 5, 2013
    Inherent weaknesses in satellite communications are leading several countries to re-evaluate terrestrial-based backup systems. There is a tale frequently told in satellite navigation circles, of how landing systems at Newark Airport were disrupted by a truck driver using GPS jamming equipment as he drove along the New Jersey Turnpike. While there was no threat to flight safety as the interference to GPS reference stations being tested, the story highlights how apparently benign threats have the potential t