NEMO project: developing a N-RSD (Noise Remote Sensing Device) to identify high noise emitters in the road traffic flow

NEMO (Noise and Emissions MOnitoring and Radical mitigation) is a research project aiming at developing an autonomous system to detect noise and air pollutant emissions from individual vehicles within the traffic flow. The objective is to identify high emitters within the normal traffic. For noise, a high emitter is a vehicle that is either in a poor or modified condition (e.g., with an illegal or malfunctioning exhaust) or that is driven in a noisy way (fast acceleration, high engine speed in low gear, etc.). A vehicle that has been type approved, is well maintained, and is driven under normal conditions is never a high-emitter vehicle, even if it is subjectively perceived as annoying. A Noise Remote Sensing Device (N-RSD) is being developed. This device will capture, for each individual vehicle, the driving conditions (vehicle speed, acceleration, engine speed and load) and the single-event noise levels and spectral characteristics. The noise levels will be normalized to comparable driving conditions and fed into a classification model. The classification model will then be able to identify the high emitters vehicles. When finished, the NEMO system will allow cities and road authorities to reduce annoyance and health impacts from noisy and polluting vehicles, for instance by raising awareness among drivers or by restricting access to low emission zones.