ITS Heartland Award Goes to NTC Student Ernest Tufuor

On April 23, 2018 Ernest Tufuor received an ITS Heartland Award for his paper on the usage of a Bluetooth-plus-Wi-Fi device for travel time research. The organization presented the award to the Civil Engineering Ph.D. student at their annual meeting in Lincoln, NE.

ITS Heartland is an organization that aims to facilitate information sharing for ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) projects and activities. The State Departments of Transportation and major universities in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma hold annual meetings to allow members to discuss ITS issues, learn about activities in other states, and provide an opportunity for vendors to display new products.

Tufuor’s paper overviews a study using a Bluetooth device to ascertain travel time and determine whether the data collected is reliable. The device developed by NTC, referred to as generic Bluetooth (gBT), consisted of a single board computer (raspberry pi), a power supply, an adjustable antenna, a global positioning system, and a wireless adaptor. A GPS-probe vehicle was used to compare travel times with the gBT for 15 hours in three consecutive days on a two mile arterial road segment in Lincoln. The study found Bluetooth travel times to be capable of providing reliable estimates of the arterial travel time. Tufuor acknowledges his advisor and the director of NTC, Dr. Laurence Rilett, for the innovative and creative ideas that led to the project’s success.

Many researchers, especially students, rely on commercially developed BT detecting devices from local transport agencies, posing location restrictions. The gBT system is modular, readily adaptable, easily assembled, low-cost, and allows research to be conducted on all types of facilities including roadways, pedestrian walkways, and bikeways. The gBT costs around $500 to produce as compared to the on-shelf vendor BT devices that may cost $5,000.

“Having Bluetooth and Wi-Fi combined gives the opportunity for a higher sampling rate, which seems to be different from other systems,” Tufuor said when asked about his interest in the research subject. He is continuing his work at NTC as a research assistant before his projected graduation in 2019. He aspires to become a faculty member at the University of Nebraska.