Real-time Bus Arrival Prediction System (BAPS) With Embedded Features

Abstract-The bus transportation systems in India pose lot of problems such as late arrivals, breakdowns which go unreported for a long time, crowded buses etc. Passengers have no information about the delay in the bus to arrive while they wait for it and neither do they know about the vacancy of seats in the bus they are waiting for. Bus management corporations too are helpless in this regard and neither knows where their bus is nor do they know if there is a bus/route failure. Due of traffic congestion, buses are stuck at various points and this affects every day commuters. More than two buses scheduled for different time-slots pile up at a single bus-stop at the same time. This means a passenger has to be at the bus station when either of the buses arrives. Otherwise, the commuter has to wait for the next bus to arrive at its scheduled time. There is a need for a system which can convert a sluggish bus system into a rapid bus transit system. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling. The goal of these systems is to approach the service quality of rail transit while still enjoying the cost savings and flexibility of bus transit. In this project we try to develop and design a system which can help the commuters and the managements in various ways. Using wireless communication network we can design an intelligent public transport system which can satisfy all above requirements.

Bus rapid transit, intelligent public transport system, wireless communication, embedded system design technologies
Keywords-

I.

Introduction

Aim of this project is to provide the solution for the optimized use of public transport, better service to users and various technologies to help the managements to improve the transport system and turn the existing system into a smart transport system using wireless communication and embedded system design technologies.
II.

Existing Methods

A similar kind of project is implemented which sends users message regarding bus timings, but the system used GSM modem to send the message from bus stand to bus stand and on the basis of these received messages they updated their displays for user notification. This system used GPS module to find out which stop the bus has reached. In this system numerous messages are sent at every stop, GPS and GSM modules are costly and hence their installation in every bus of a particular corporation will sky rocket the cost of this service.

In metro stations the arrival time of metro trains are displayed. As there are no traffic jams and route diversion problems all the communication is done through wires. Thus the concept of Bus Arrival Prediction System (BAPS) hence is operated on this similar concept using wireless communication.

III. Bus

Arrival Prediction System (BAPS):

This informs all stops and thereby all passengers, how many stops or how far the bus is from the stop and the time it would take to reach that particular stop i.e. the estimated arrival time. 6) So passengers are aware when the bus would arrive. So if the bus they are waiting for is late they could choose an alternate travelling option.
IV. Vacant

seats information (VSI):

Each seat of a bus is equipped with sensor (Tactile switch) to sense whether it is occupied or not, and no of vacant seats are then computed and transmitted to the next bus stop where, this information is displayed for users along with bus arrival time. 7) If the passengers are aware of how many seats are vacant in the bus, it helps them decide whether to wait for that bus or take an alternate bus to their destination. 8) This data is accumulated at the central station and analysed to find out whether to add or remove buses in a particular route or to remove particular stops in a route.
V.

Applications:

9)

Major applications of this system are in the city public transport and the intercity public transport corporations to provide the users with arrival time information of their buses. 10) It can be used in metro and local railway systems. 11) This system with modifications can be used in taxis to track them. 12) All the data which is collected at the central station can be used to statistically analyse the traffic conditions at various time of the day and in turn improve bus punctuality, bus routing. 13) Analysis of bus transit time from stop to stop can help in route diversion suggestion so as to avoid congested areas on the route. 14) Identifying routes with profit and loss and adding/removing buses or bus stops accordingly.

CONCLUSION
The above proposed system will ease the decision making process of daily commuters

and also will an effective instrument to management corporations to analyse their transport system efficiently. With the advent of arrival time and other information displayed in every bus stop, commuters can be attracted towards using public transport and hence will increase efficient use of the transportation and reduce traffic density in the city.
REFERENCES
[1] IEEE PAPER: Development of a real-time bus arrival prediction system for Indian traffic conditions by Padmanaban R.P.S. ; Divakar K. ; Vanajakshi L. ; Subramanian S.C.; Dept. of Civil Eng., Indian Inst. of Technol. Madras, Chennai, India This paper appears in: Intelligent Transport Systems, IET Issue Date: September 2010 Volume: 4 Issue:3 On page(s): 189 200.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit: article on Wikipedia which helped a lot to develop the

idea.