INTELVIA- AN INTEGRAL SYSTEM FOR A SAFE AND INTELLIGENT OPERATIONAL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT BY MEANS OF CONTROL, SIGNALING AND COMMUNICATION ELEMENTS Oscar Muñoz Project Engineer, IDIADA Automotive Technology SA. L’Albornar – P.O. Box 20, E-43710 Santa Oliva (Spain) T +34 977 166 029, F +34 977 166 007, omunoz@idiada.com Gloria Pastor Project Engineer, IDIADA Automotive Technology SA. L’Albornar – P.O. Box 20, E-43710 Santa Oliva (Spain) T +34 977 166 029, F +34 977 166 007, gpastor@idiada.com
ABSTRACT By using telecommunications, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) improve traffic safety and efficiency, facilitating an integral transport of people and goods. In spite of the benefits obtained through ITS Systems nowadays, significant innovations will take place in the following years such as the ubiquitous and integral use of computer vision, or the development and future implementation of Cooperative ITS systems that will allow a direct communication between vehicles (V2V, Vehicle-to-Vehicle) and with the roadside elements (V2I, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) by means of mobile and wireless communication. In this context, comes the INTELVIA project (1), with the clear objective of developing ITS technologies to obtain the advantages of using information and communication technologies in the field of road transport and traffic management.
THE INTELVIA PROJECT INTELVIA is a National Spanish project supported by the Industry, Tourism and Commerce Spanish Ministry under the “Plan Avanza I+D 2009”. With the participation of some of the most active Spanish companies in development of Information and Communication based solutions applied to the ITS. INTELVIA’s consortium includes Electronic, Technological and Communications solutions providers (IKUSI, Libera Networks, ICCA, NTS Mobile and Cluster TIL-ITS), Public Research Organisms and technological centres (Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Universidad de Valencia, VICOMTech and CIDAUT), user companies 1
(DGT, Ferrovial) and Automotive Companies (Applus+IDIADA). Therefore all the actors in the value chain, including end users, participate in INTELVIA guaranteeing its transversal and integrated vision. The INTELVIA project has set out to satisfy the needs of an intelligent traffic management by developing an Integral Control, Signaling and Communication System in order to offer a Safe and Intelligent Operational Traffic Management. To meet this aim, INTELVIA integrates technological solutions in the field of computer vision, and cooperative ITS through wireless sensors/actuators and vehicular communications. The project is structured in 9 Working Packages presented in Figure 1, which include all the tasks needed to achieve the different goals identified. The total duration of the project is 36 months, starting in April 2009 and finishing in March 2012. The project is organized in 3 main work phases: Identification, R&D and Validation-Deployment.
Figure 1. INTELVIA Working Packages Organization. Applus+IDIADA Automotive Technology contributes to the project leading the Work Packages 4 and 5, Intelligent Electronic Traffic Signalling System and Vehicular Communication System. In the following sections these two systems will be described.
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INTELVIA’S VEHICULAR COMMUNICATION INTELLIGENT AND ELECTRONIC TRAFFIC SIGNALING SYSTEMS The aim of Cooperative ITS systems is to increase road safety and efficiency, and to reduce the environmental impact of road transport. The INTELVIA project will include cooperation between vehicles, drivers and infrastructure elements by communication, and therefore will improve mobility and traffic management. In Figure 1, the three elements of cooperation and their interaction it is represented.
Figure 1. In-Car driver information, V2I and V2V interaction Vehicular communication system is formed by two main elements being the On Board Unit (OBU) and the Road Side Unit (RSU). While OBU elements are in-vehicle integrated and present the information to the drivers, RSU elements are located along the roadside belonging to road traffic infrastructure and complementing signposts. As part of the intelligent traffic signaling system, RSUs and OBUs interchange traffic sign content information, weather conditions alerts or traffic congestion messages that could be stored in the RSU or provided by the control centre. On the other hand, vehicles act as on road sensors generating alert messages after detecting slippery road, obstacles or an emergency breaking situation. Messages generated by the OBU are transmitted to surrounding vehicles and to infrastructure providing the system with robustness. The information received by the OBU has to be presented to the driver in an adequate manner that does not interfere with the main activity of driving. In the design of the Human Machine Interface (HMI) avoiding driver distraction is a crucial factor to take into account. The HMI interface designed for the OBU will have multiple channels to communicate the information to the driver (voice, image, text, steering wheel vibration, etc.). The INTELVIA’s intelligent signaling system consists of electronic roadside communication nodes, electronic gateways and control centres. Figure 2 shows a scenario where the signaling system could be deployed.
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Figure 2. INTELVIA Intelligent Traffic Signalling System Electronic roadside communication nodes are distributed along the road network. Its mission is to establish a highly available and robust mesh network with the capability of interchanging information between electronic nodes and with vehicles passing their locations. The intelligence of the network resides in control centres that communicate with nodes by means of electronic gateways nodes.
CONCLUSIONS The INTELVIA’s project will allow the deployment of an innovative system that will improve traffic management increasing road safety and mobility. Speed limit and other road sign information, weather alerts or warnings of approaching emergency vehicles, will be sent to an in-vehicle display and presented to the driver on an OBU. As a result, beyond information sharing, systems can cooperate in the sense of modifying their behaviour in the light of knowledge of others’ actions and intentions, even negotiating amongst each other. The system proposed will improve traffic safety by reducing the number of accidents caused by low or null visibility of the signposts (heavy rain, fog, etc.) and it will reduce driver’s distraction presenting the information directly to the driver in the interior of the vehicle.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A special mention should be made to the Spanish Industry, Tourism and Commerce Ministry.
REFERENCES (1) INTELVIA Project Website www.intel-via.org
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