Sensor-friendly vehicle and roadway systems

Abstract

Sensor-friendly vehicle and roadway systems consist of complementary signal sensor and reflector or transmitter technologies, which provide information about the threat of a collision. These technologies can be composed into cooperative collision avoidance systems, which can supplement or replace single vehicle-based systems. Experiments were run on the four most promising technologies to determine their performance and reliability; the four technologies were passive license plates with enhanced radar return, roadside obstacle-mounted radar-reflecting corner cubes, fluorescent paint for lane and obstacle marking, and light emitting diode brake-light messaging. These technologies all focus on improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the collision avoidance sensor. We believe that experimental results indicate that further proof-of-concept refinements are needed, but in general these systems represent technologically sound, cooperative vehicle-roadway components and that sensor friendly systems could eventually translate into a significant benefit in terms of lives saved.