Real-Time Vehicle Detection and Air Pollution Estimation Using YOLOv9

Abstract

Pollution of air, particularly in cities, is becoming an issue to be taken seriously owing to the health and environmental risks associated with it, and the major contributor to air pollution is car emissions. The objective of the study is to identify and classify vehicles such as motorbikes, cars, buses, trucks in order to monitor live traffic and potentially determine the extent to which the pollution level elevates, utilizing the YOLOv9 model. Traffic CCTV camera footage was gathered under a wide range of circumstances including different lighting and varying traffic intensity. Folders were particularly structured and images annotated, in the manner, which served the purpose of meeting the requirements of the YOLO structure. Once it was trained with a labeled dataset, the vehicle identification by YOLOv9 model was found to be quite satisfactory. Overall vehicle identification accuracy was calculated to be mAP50:95 of 0.826. In contrast, it had a harder time with smaller items like motorcycles, with a mAP50:95 of 0.682. Findings indicate that larger items were detected more than smaller items. Camera angles and the small size of the objects often make small objects appear to blend in to the background. This research indicates that AI can be of help when dealing with the urban structure. It offers a way of measuring traffic volume to predict the amount of CO emissions that can be avoided or controlled. The rest are keen in enhancing the effectiveness of recognizing small objects within the system and deploying it in multiple settings.