Forecasting expert system for road slipperiness (ASTRA2008/002_OBF)
Overview
Background & policy context:
The interactive expert system for the winter maintenance service was developed by the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Information Technology (BFH-TI) by order of the canton Lucerne. The aim of the expert system is to propose automatically in a computer based way spread- or plough actions to the winter maintenance team to be completed for the roads of the Canton Lucerne. During the winter 06/07, the system was put into operation and the strength and weakness were evaluated.
It's now planned, to establish the expert system on the national roads in the area of the canton Bern by support of ASTRA and the research promotion of the Bern University of Applied Sciences. Thereby the modeling of the road conditions should not only be done by using local sensor data but also in conjunction with modeling of weather models by MeteoSchweiz.
Objectives:
The aim of the "Forecasting expert system for road slipperiness" is to improve the modeling of the road conditions, developed in the IMWD project, and to copy this to the spreader route network of the canton Berne. To do that, the existing way of modeling has to be analyzed and optimized by meteorologists and physicists. The success of this development can be checked with calculations and evaluations from the data in winter 07/08.
To receive and store the winter 07/08 data as well as to put the system into operation in November of 2008, the improved IMWD system will be used. To put this system into effect a new graphical user interface has to be developed in consideration of the requirements of the winter maintenance team.
Methodology:
To carry out the research project, a structured approach in 6 phases is planned:
Phase 1: Integration of forecasting system in the existing winter road system structure;
Phase 2: data collection in winter 07/08;
Phase 3: modeling of road conditions, including implementation and evaluation;
Phase 4: planning (needs assessment) and implementation of user interface;
Phase 5: Operating mode in winter 08/09;
Phase 6: Evaluation.
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