Overview
The main aim of the COVER project was to foster the creation of the next generation intelligent cooperative systems that would make road transport more efficient and effective, safer and more environmentally friendly. COVER, by integrating semantically oriented technologies, intelligent agents, in-car and infrastructure sensor data, multi-channel communication technologies and multimodal interfaces, will provide user-friendly, semantic-driven cooperative systems fulfilling eSafety service requirements.
COVER's focus was to ensure communication inside the vehicle and also between the vehicle and infrastructure systems so as to provide Advanced Driver Assistance Services (ADAS). By exploiting the benefits of ontology-based approach which allowed context knowledge to be shared, COVER provided the needed abstraction from sensor data to detect dangerous situations. This aimed to help drivers to manage challenging situations brought about by road topology, geometry or driving conditions.
Prerequisites for Implementation
- To define an architecture of the COVER system relevant for the needs of an open, semantically-driven cooperative systems with the aim of contributing to achieve standardisation of the different applications and projects (ISO TC 204, W3C, OMA).
- To specify and implement the COVER platform. This platform consists of two fundamental components.
The first, content-dependent part, dynamically gathered, integrated and processed context-based multimedia information and transmitted them via wireless network. The second, multimedia visualisation part, provided intelligent and adaptive interface of services to drivers, on the basis of advanced graphic and voice interaction. This will make it possible for the drivers to access their personalised services, including the option of voice recognition and voice synthesis. - To carry out two field trials in Finland (corridor E18) and Italy (road section between Turin and Florence) to verify various applications in diverse conditions and to appeal to the target groups (professional truck drivers and non-professional drivers).
- To carry out an extensive verification stage (7 months) of the COVER platform, including evaluation of the results achieved, practicability and cost-effectiveness.
Implementation Process
- Identification of user needs;
- Definition of architecture for the system of open, semantically-driven cooperative systems (between infrastructure and vehicle);
- Specification of the COVER platform, including basic semantic, context and multimodal components;
- Implementation and subsequent verification of extended eSafety services for the conditions of European drivers.
Funding
Results
The COVER Consortium gathered expertise from Road Infrastructure Operators, Research Laboratories, Ontology Research Centres, Telecommunication Operators, Multimodal Interaction Player as well as System integrators. This partnership allowed COVER to adequately define and implement cooperative systems by accessing the necessary expertise concerning road information services, automotive research, semantic technologies, multimodal context-aware interface and telecommunication services.
COVER demonstrated different use cases of its vehicle – infrastructure cooperation platform through the organisation of two project field trials. These trials were carried out in one Finnish corridor over E18 mainly devoted to professional (truck) drivers, and one motorway segment (Turin-Florence) in Italy, addressing non-professional drivers.