Automatic vehicle counter-cum-classifier system refers to the various components and processes of the toll collection system with which the toll equipment is able to determine the configuration of the vehicle for the purpose of charging the appropriate toll to the user. Also, AVCCs are increasingly being used for permanent data collection and/or traffic monitoring.

Overview of AVCC:-

An AVCC system consists of sensor devices installed in a lane to record the physical characteristics of vehicles and a processing unit to aggregate the input from the various sensor devices and interpret this input to assign a class to each vehicle passing through the lane.

Elements of Vehicle Classification:-

A vehicle’s class can be variously determined on the basis of the physical attributes of the vehicle such as number of axles, number of tyres on each axle, spacing between the axles, and length of the body. For example, a vehicle with two axles and single set of tires on the second axle may be classified as a car/jeep/van, while a vehicle with two axles and dual tyres on the second axle may be classified as a truck. It is a simple matter for a human to make the distinction between the two. Determining the vehicle class automatically, however, can be rather complex. In the example given the two vehicles differ only in terms of the number of tyres on the second axle. In addition, vehicles may be distinguished by the height of the vehicle or the total weight of the vehicle. Thus, an automatic vehicle classification may need to determine vehicle height, length, number of axles, presence of dual tyres, and vehicle weight or a combination of these to distinguish the vehicles and assign the appropriate class.

Determinants of vehicle class may include:-

• Number of axles and/or tires of a vehicle;
• Dimensions (i.e. height, length, wheelbase, height over first axle) of a vehicle
• Weight of a vehicle.