REPOSIT - Relative Positioning for Collision Avoidance Systems
Overview
Background & policy context:
Increasing road safety is one of the EU's priorities of the European Commission; the REPOSIT project was commissioned to address the situation of technology being used only to mitigate the effects of accidents once the vehicle has collided (structural design of car bodies, airbags, etc.) or to try to increase the performance and reliability of the systems controlling the dynamics of the car just before a potential collision (ADAS - advanced driver assistance systems such as ABS, ESP, etc.).
REPOSIT was therefore conceived as a system to improve road safety by increasing the awareness of drivers regarding the position of the other cars on the road and how they are moving.
The use of positioning devices (GPS) is very widespread nowadays for navigation purposes, but another possible application (less well used) is to combine the information from two devices in order to obtain a much more precise relative positioning between the units. This is one of the main concepts that make REPOSIT possible.
In order to be able to obtain a relative positioning, we need two units to share their information and that can be achieved thanks to a set of emerging technologies related to inter-vehicular communications. Nowadays, vehicles are isolated entities on the road, but in the near future they will be exchanging information with other vehicles to provide in-vehicle entertainment, safety solutions and so on.
The REPOSIT concept goes further than just vehicle positioning (relative to other vehicles: 'Relative GPS') in that it can alert the user of potentially dangerous situations. If a potential collision is predicted, an alarm is raised in order to warn the driver in advance and reduce his reaction time.
There are studies that suggest that the reaction time is a very significant factor in road accidents as the driver does not have enough time to make a decision in order to avoid a collision. REPOSIT tries to decrease that reaction time in order to avoid the collision or at least allow enough time to the car to reduce its energy before the crash.
Objectives:
REPOSIT aimed to address the use of Relative GPS and wireless vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications integrated with existing Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS).
The final goal of REPOSIT, from the scientific and technological point of view, was to be able to prove how the use of Relative GPS combined with wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communications is feasible and makes sense in the context of Collision Avoidance Systems and, in particular, for the case of longitudinal and intersection collisions.
Identified tasks deployed for reaching project objectives were:
- implementation of Relative GPS algorithms applicable to longitudinal and intersection CAS;
- modelling and characterisation of wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communications applicable to longitudinal and intersection CAS;
- implementation of longitudinal and intersection CAS integrating Relative GPS and V2V communications;
- simulation of the implemented longitudinal and intersection CAS integrating Relative GPS and vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and addressing major results.
Methodology:
The main steps were:
- define REPOSIT components - RGNSS Module, V2V Module and CAS Module;
- develop and tune each single module;
- study obtained test results;
- analysis of future enhancements for REPOSIT.
Complementary activities were:
- analysis and results of the in-vehicle integration case;
- analysis and results from the Standardisation and Certification viewpoint.
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