SBIR-STTR Award

Congestion due to a work zone can cause accidents, as the drivers may not be prepared to take sudden actions ahead of a work zone or in some cases may not have enough visibility/time. Transmitting alert messages in advance can enable the driver to take safety precautionary measures so that it is beneficial to both the driver and the work zone personnel. The proposal aims to develop a scalable solution both in terms of technology/device and the operations for managing and retrofitting existing work zone devices with DSRC transmitters in order to deliver work zone related messages to the drivers. We plan to explore a solution that consists of a stand-alone portable road-side unit (RSU) fitted into an existing work zone device and On-board Units (OBUs) residing in vehicles. The work zone devices can be remotely accessed via secure communications as well as network with other work zone devices in the vicinity such that an effective and smart coverage of relay of work zone messages can be provided of a defined coverage area.

The primary objective of SBIR Phase II is to design and validate the data flow inside a smart work zone system by designing a framework that would enable exchanging work zone related messages between remote traffic management center server TMCS and the vehicles on the road. The framework will possess the following capabilities: • Ability to broadcast Traveler Information Messages (TIM) as well as Road Side Alert (RSA) messages to connected vehicles in a work zone. • Ability to track vehicles traversing a work zone to extract data for performance metric computation. • Ability to remotely configure TIM from a central location over cellular link or on?site via an Ethernet link. • Ability to communicate with existing work zone equipment using the NTCIP protocol. The following are the main components of the proposed framework: • A tool to create TIMs and RSAs and placing them on local maps and enhance the logic to identify work zone areas. • Road side Equipment (RSE) that broadcasts TIM/RSA, receives BSMs from connected vehicles, communicates with existing work zone equipment via NTCIP, and, communicates with remote central server via cellular OBU receives the work zone messages (TIM/RSA) from either the RSE or other OBUs. These messages are communicated to driver through a driver-vehicle interface. • Traffic Management Server (TMCS) – Centralized server that is capable of provisioning TIM/RSA messages on the RSE. It also does the data analysis of the OBU messages and calculates work zone travel parameters including travel time and congestion extension (Back of the Queue Location). The Work Zone project scope will also include the development of a set of algorithms and applications, hosted inside in vehicle OBU’s, required to intelligently communicate with the proposed work zone system (mainly the RSE), to extend the operation field of the work zone system and to convey to the driver the required travel information and warning messages.