Hello,
I just have an application feasibility question to ask the LDC experts. I have some students who want to design a car counter to deploy in a heavy traffic parking garage on campus. The problem statement is the lot has a set number of spaces so if you can get an accurate count of cars, it is possible to broadcast when the lot is full or has spaces. The direction of the car (incoming or outgoing) can be determined with a second sensor. They initially looked at optical sensing using a laser as a trip wire counter, but were worried about humans crossing the optical path. They are now interested in seeing if inductive sensing might make sense.
In their application, they want to put down an inductive sensing coil in the lane path. Will they be able to detect the passing of a vehicle over the sensor? Will there be distance limitations (car has lower ground clearance, truck has higher ground clearance)? Will there be human inductance interference or false positives from passing pedestrians? In the case of motor cycles which may not pass directly over the coil, can the inductance be detected to the sides (or periphery) of the sensor? How far is this peripheral sensing for a large object like a motor cycle?
Thank you for your insight on this application! If it does appear like inductive sensing is appropriate, what is the recommended part number suggested?
