Analysing density and identifying lane changing behaviour using naturalistic data from a swarm of drones

In recent years, drones have come a long way from their early expensive military implementation to today’s relative accessibility to the wider public. Video stabilization and image recognition have also been very active field of research which influence is reaching research in transportation. In this report, we identified the potential in transportation research of a large and precise dataset obtained by a swarm of drone. We examined in detail the challenges and opportunities of this new type of dataset on an example of a micro approach, in lane change phenomena, and macro approached, in effects of bus-stops on nearby traffic. Results show that despite their limitations, mainly in battery life and connectivity, swarms of drones have a great potential when it comes to micro and macro transportation studies and may soon be an integral part of any ITS infrastructure.