WATCH-OVER - Vehicle-to-Vulnerable Road User Cooperative Communication and Sensing Technologies to Improve Transport Safety
Overview
Background & policy context:
Over the last 30 years, the overall volume of road traffic has tripled (European Commission, 2003). Even though the number of road deaths has fallen by half during these years, it is still at an unacceptably high number. New on-board information and communication technologies offer considerable potential for reducing the number of traffic accident victims. The WATCH-OVER project aims at avoiding road accidents that involve vulnerable road users (VRUs), namely pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists, by developing an integrated cooperative system for accident prevention. This topic was in line with the ambitious target of the EC, to reduce the total number of road fatalities by 50% by 2010.
Objectives:
The WATCH-OVER project aimed at avoiding road accidents that involve VRUs, namely pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists, by developing an integrated cooperative system for accident prevention.
The core of the system, based on sensor and communication technologies, is the interaction of an on-board module and a user module, in order to cover a wide traffic scenario, including blind spots. Current sensor technologies cannot 'see' behind obstacles and have a limited view of lateral and longitudinal areas. The main difficulty in detecting VRUs is therefore the limited 'visibility' of car drivers and of in-vehicle sensor based systems.
WATCH-OVER aimed at improving these soft spots, by combining the most promising communication technologies with the most promising sensor technologies. Besides focussing on the exploitation of these advanced communication and sensing technologies, the main focus of the project was the design and development of the human machine interface (HMI) for both the driver and the vulnerable road user. Therefore, different solutions for the HMI have to be found: One would be an in-vehicle device, whereas the others would be based upon wearable devices for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists.
Methodology:
To succeed in developing an efficient cooperative system for accident prevention, the work in the WATCH-OVER project was divided into seven different work packages (WPs). In these work packages the tasks for the involved partners in the project were defined as follows:
WP1 Project management and exploitation
WP1 dealt with the management of all financial, administrative, technical and non-technical aspects of the project. Key activities of this work package were the exploitation of project results, the association to other related R&D projects and the standardisation bodies.
WP2 User requirements and scenarios
The goal of WP2 was to identify the needs and requirements of the target users as well as to analyse the most relevant scenarios of application.
WP3 Overall system specification
In WP3 the functional architecture specifications of the WATCH-OVER system were defined. Furthermore, all communication and sensor technologies as well as the warning and intervention strategy were specified.
WP4 Communication and Sensing Technologies
WP4 dealt with the major technological aspects of the project. It analysed and adapted the selected communication and sensing technologies and worked on data fusion.
WP5 System development
In WP5 the different subsystems were developed as well as the on-board and wearable devices and related software applications. Particular attention was paid to the HMI design for the driver and for the VRU.
WP6 Cooperative system test and validation
In WP6 the WATCH-OVER application was integrated in the demonstrators for testing. The demonstrators were: the vehicles, cars and motorbike and the wearable module. Also technical and user acceptance tests were performed.
WP7 Deployment strategies and dissemination
WP7 dealt with the strategies related to the deployment of the WATCH-OVER system. In particular, the main activities were a thorough market analysis as well as a cost/benefit analysis, the evaluation of the impact on road safety and the dissemination of the project activities.
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