Snowplow Warning System for Drivers using V2V and/or V2I based DSRC Communication and Variable Message Signs (VMSs) - FY12 NATSRL

Principal Investigator(s):

M. Imran Hayee, Dept. Head, Professor, UMD-Electrical Engineering

Project summary:

The U.S. Department of Transportation continues to emphasize the need for vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and/or vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication to enhance driver safety and traffic efficiency through its IntelliDriveSM initiative. Dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) is one key wireless technology enabling V2V and V2I communication. The future deployment of DSRC technology requires that DSRC-based applications are integrated with existing traffic management techniques so that non-DSRC-equipped vehicles at the early stage of DSRC deployment can also reap the potential benefits of the technology. This research has successfully developed and field demonstrated a hybrid traffic-information system combining DSRC technology and portable changeable message signs (PCMS) for work zone environments to improve traffic mobility, and as a result, driver safety. The developed system uses DSRC-based V2I and V2V communication to acquire travel safety parameters such as travel time (TT) and starting location of congestion (SLoC), and disseminates these parameters to both DSRC-equipped vehicles and DSRC-equipped PCMSs strategically placed alongside the road. Using the DSRC-PCMS interface designed for this purpose, PCMSs can receive these travel safety parameters from nearby DSRC-equipped vehicles on the road via DSRC-based V2V communication and display them for the drivers of the vehicles lacking DSRC capability. Such a system can be useful for an early stage of DSRC deployment when the DSRC market penetration is low. Additionally, a rigorous analysis was conducted to investigate the minimum DSRC market penetration rate needed for the developed system to successfully function with respect to both acquisition and dissemination of TT and SLoC. Using realistic traffic flow modeling, guidelines were developed to estimate the minimum DSRC penetration rate needed to deploy the developed system for a variety of traffic scenarios in a given roadway work zone.

Sponsor(s):

Project details: