Monitoring Trail Use

This project seeks to count how many hikers and bicyclists are using trail systems using ultra sonic sensors. Current practices imposes a surveyor to count the trail users visually on specific times and hours. This project will allow long-term monitoring of trails. As a result, counties will be able to effectively maintain their trail systems by diverting their funds based on the use of the trails.

To count the trail users, this system uses ultra-sonic sensors that can detect distance on-the-fly. Any change of distance during operation means a user is nearby the sensor and hiking or bicycling the trail. By sensing the collected usage statistics to a remote location through Sparkfun ESP8266 module, the data can be stored on a server for further analysis. Cayenne is a good platform for storing and visualizing this trail data.

The cover image is attributed to Paulbalegend at en.wikipedia.