A Real-Time Monitoring and Rapid Warning Method for Guardrail Collisions in Intelligent Transportation Systems

This article proposes a method for real-time monitoring and rapid alert for guardrail collisions based on Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS). The aim is to enhance traffic safety through continuous analysis of vibration signals. To achieve this, a system architecture that combines both hardware and software design has been developed, enabling the handling of the entire process from signal acquisition and decoding to intelligent event recognition and visualization. To improve signal reliability, an adaptive noise reduction algorithm and a multi-level feature extraction method are introduced, enabling accurate differentiation between collision events and environmental disturbances. Tests at various vehicle speeds show that the DAS-based system detects collisions with over 98% accuracy and cuts false alarms by more than 60% compared to traditional video and point-sensor monitoring. It can locate accidents with an average error of 4.2 meters and respond in under 1 second, demonstrating both its accuracy and speed. These results confirm the method’s effectiveness and reliability for enhancing transportation safety.