Technological risks management: automatic detection and identification of hazardous material transportation trucks

Hazardous material (hazmat) transportation trucks represent far more danger than any other truck in the event of an accident. In addition to normal consequences, the potentially harmful properties of the substance being carried represents a major risk. It is therefore important to know when such vehicles travel near key areas. To properly manage the crisis it will create, precise information is required on the type of hazmat and its effects. According to regulations in Europe about hazmat transportation, this information is always present in the form of several standardized plates on the truck. More than simply detecting their presence, it is crucial to identify them, as early as possible. This paper presents the work done on a technological system, which is able to both detect and identify a hazmat truck. This fully automated system is based on image-processing software which detects and identifies the standardized plates using images from high-resolution cameras. These could be deployed at various strategic control points such as toll stations, tunnels or city limits. The paper will begin with a short description of the current European legislation on hazmat transportation and will continue with the presentation of a common model of intelligent transportation system and the possibilities of integration of a hazmat detection sensor in such an architecture. The work done on the development of the device itself will be presented. Finally the software prototype based from this research will be presented along with preliminary experimental results.