This autumn, the City of Tallinn and the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities have launched a pilot project in which city buses and waste collection vehicles will begin detecting damaged or missing traffic signs. Smart sensors, or cameras, installed on the vehicles will transmit real-time information to the city about the condition of traffic signs.

According to Uljana Rensalu from the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities, the project offers an innovative and flexible solution.“By installing mobile sensors on existing vehicles, it is possible to automate data collection and processing without using additional vehicles, which helps reduce costs. The city receives constantly updated and reliable information without having to send staff to inspect the situation on site,” Rensalu explained.

The sensors use artificial intelligence to process data and send the key results to a secure cloud environment, where the information becomes immediately available to the city.

“Upon the implementation of the project, the City of Tallinn aims to improve the quality of traffic management equipment. The development of technology and its adoption will in the future help to identify problems more quickly, do so more efficiently, and reduce errors caused by the human factor,” said Virko Noor, Head of the Traffic Management Division at the Tallinn Transport Department.

The initiative is a pilot project designed to evaluate how well the new system performs. In addition to Tallinn, the same technology is being tested to measure air quality in Dublin, Ireland, and to detect road potholes in Pula, Croatia. The flexibility of the system makes it possible to collect and compare data across all three cities.

The pilot projects are funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research under the programme “FinEst Centre for Smart Cities Pilot Programme.”