Downer Group pioneers incident management via fibre cable

Downer Group has formed a partnership with Future Fibre Technologies (FFT) to offer a monitoring tool for the detection of incidents on roads, rail lines, bridges, tunnels and more.
October 11, 2016 Read time: 1 min

7203 Downer Group has formed a partnership with Future Fibre Technologies (FFT) to offer a monitoring tool for the detection of incidents on roads, rail lines, bridges, tunnels and more.

Utilising new or existing fibre deployments along a road or rail line, the system can monitor for incidents, detected by vibrations transmitted via the fibre optic cable. Control centres can be alerted in real time to an incident and location to accuracies within 6-10m, saving valuable time for emergency crews.

Vibration variations are compared with a library of normal background signals to categorise incidents.

Advanced artificial intelligence technology uses behaviour and signature recognition, and signal processing software, to identify the difference between a background event such as rain and an actual incident, reducing the frequency of nuisance alarms.

“No one is using fibre in this way to detect traffic incidents anywhere in the world,” said Jeff Sharp, group manager, technology and innovation, Downer Group.

These otherwise barely detectable vibrations monitored through the fibre cables can also be used to measure traffic speed and track traffic movement.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The inside story of how traffic chaos was avoided after I-95 collapse
    August 23, 2023
    June’s collapse of major US roadway I-95 in Pennsylvania could have caused lengthy traffic chaos. But - relatively speaking at least - it didn’t and gridlock was avoided. Alan Dron finds out why
    Read More
  • Nairobi looks to ITS to ease travel problems
    March 6, 2018
    Shem Oirere looks at plans to tackle chronic congestion in the Kenyan capital - where commuters can typically expect it to take up to two hours to complete a 15km journey. Traffic jams in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are estimated to cost the country $360 million a year in terms of lost man-hours, fuel and pollution. According to Wilfred Oginga, an engineer with the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), the congestion has been exacerbated by poor regulation and enforcement of traffic rules, absence of
    Read More
  • Leonardo addresses new mobility trends
    October 19, 2022
    Italy-headquartered Leonardo outlines why, and how, the company is at the forefront of more effective, efficient, and sustainable mobility - a top European priority - through investments in the Next Generation EU programme, aimed at achieving energy and climatic objectives.
    Read More
  • Doha implements traffic control system
    November 21, 2012
    Expansion of ITS systems has accelerated in Qatar this year, with rapid deployment of a traffic control system in Doha. Less than 10 years from now an extensive system of ITS technology will be operating in Qatar, informing and directing users of the country’s roads. That can be stated with confidence for a number of reasons: the world’s richest country per capita will host the World Cup in 2022 and is understood to be planning to develop sophisticated systems of ITS for road safety and traffic managemen
    Read More

Highlighted Content