The UCLA Campus Express Shuttle Service has partnered with researchers at the university’s computer science department to develop and implement a new high-tech tracking system for campus shuttle buses.
The tracking system was installed on all 17 campus shuttle buses, which serve 6,000 riders daily during the regular school year.
Shuttle bus managers used to depend on radios and roving supervisors to track the fleet of buses serving students, staff and faculty.
The new system, known as Realtime Bus Tracking, works via an on-board computer and a Global Positioning System unit on each bus. The system was designed by graduate students working with computer science professor Richard Muntz.
The GPS units, mounted on the front windshield of each bus, allow managers at the shuttle service office to track buses from their computers.
“We use it (the tracking system) mainly to track the spacing and the timeliness of the route,” said Byron Mayhan, a supervisor for Transit Operations.
“I can look at my screen and see exactly where every bus is,” he added.
Mayhan can then determine if the buses are adequately spaced and make the appropriate adjustments by communicating with bus drivers via the radio.
Both the researcher team and the shuttle service reap benefits from their partnership: The researchers get real-world data from the experiment, and the shuttle service gets the technology free of charge.
The system is not perfect, however. The biggest problem is the “dead zones,” specifically near Dodd Hall, where the signal, provided by an AT&T wireless network between the GPS units and the central office, is lost. The system partly compensates by keeping the bus on the screen – even when the signal is lost – until the GPS detects it again.
But even when the GPS is detecting the buses, it is not exact, since trees and buildings can obstruct the signal.
In developing the system, instead of using name brand parts, the graduate students devised their own “special configuration from off the shelf,” according to Muntz.
“We decided to implement our own setup because it gave us more flexibility,” said Scott Friedman, a graduate student working on the project.
Having flexibility allows the researchers to build off their current system and expand the system in the future.
The tracking system is part of a research project that Muntz hopes will lead to more advanced applications. One of the focuses of the research is on “computers embedded in the physical world,” Muntz said.
In other words, the researchers on the project will attempt to use sensors on the roads along bus routes and in the buses to detect environmental variables in the real world.
The other focus is on finding patterns in the data to further apply the research.
“Ultimately, we’re interested in emergency response,” Friedman said. The system, he said, will be capable of determining obstacles ahead, such as accidents, heavy traffic or construction, in order to help operators reroute vehicles.
Other possible applications of the research include determining how long it takes a bus to get from one point to another and installing the system on other service vehicles.
Currently, buses are supposed to run every 10 to 12 minutes. When the regular school year begins, they should run about every eight minutes, according to Mayhan.
Mayhan and Muntz’s research team will continue to work together to improve the system. There is a possibility of connecting the system with maintenance sensors already on the buses which can track mechanical problems before they cause an actual failure.
Also up for consideration is the possibility of adding LCD screens at bus stops that will let riders know how long they can plan on waiting until the next bus arrives.