EYEAR - Road Eye
Part of modelling 1 (
PULP FRICTION)
Leaders:
WP3, WP2: Jörg Dubbert (Pöyry), Marjo Hippi (FMI), Torbjörn Gustavsson (Klimator)
Description:
Friction data collection and transmission (acoustic, optical, invehicle etc.).
DATA FILE:
EYEAR.doc
DISCUSSION
18 Nov 2008
Dear
Marjo,
Dear
Torben,
I have
tried to make a first description for the EYEAR idea. I was appointed as
idea father although I am definitely not the originator. But, if nobody can be
identified who's idea this was, I volunteer to make the first step to describe
what kind of associations the topic generates in my head.
Maybe it
is not yet too innovative at the moment. I really also need the input of
weather and friction experts. Hopefully this is not too similar to our Pulp
Friction pilot.
Please
let me know what you can contribute and how you would develop the idea.
Maybe
somebody to whom I have copied this e-Mail remembers the original idea?
Best
regards,
Jörg
Dubbert
EYEAR – Road Eye: Friction Data Collection and Transmission
Description
The idea
The
idea is centred on friction data collection and transmission. It is supposed to
improve the detection of road friction data by introducing measurements based
on floating vehicles. In this sense, EYEAR is a form of an extended floating
car data detection technology. The vehicle is used to carry optical friction
sensors and brake sensors which detect the degree of the local friction on the
road.
a)
Combined
with the GPS-position, it would be possible to detect road sections which low
friction values and – based on this – to generate a map-based overview of
temporarily dangerous road sections and respective warning messages which can
be distributed to the road users as a service and to road maintenance staff as
an improved basis for taking counter-actions like salt spraying or snow
ploughing.
b)
Based
on car-to-car communication, a vehicle which detects low friction values could
inform the immediately following vehicles and warn the driver of the hazard.
Technical approach
The friction data need to be location referenced (GPS) and
transferred from the sensors to the onboard unit of the vehicle via the CAN-bus
system of the vehicle.
Approach a)
In order to implement such an application, a fleet of a
larger size (5% of all vehicles in the network) need to be equipped with
friction sensors, on-board units and data communication. A quick data
transmission to a central computer system is needed in order to be able to
process the friction data sets from several vehicles in order to generation
warning messages to the general road user via information services and road
maintenance information to the road authorities. For this, a larger vehicle
fleet is necessary.
Approach b)
Using car-to-car information technology, messages about
slipperiness could be given from one car to the other by short-range
communication. If one car detects a slippery road section, the warning message
could be given to the following vehicles. This requires the equipment of cars
by respective intelligent on-board computers and a reliable short-range
communication.
Geographical scope
The application is relevant in all countries, but with a
stronger focus on countries with harder winter weather conditions (e.g. in Northern Europe).
Data Needs
The application needs to detect the following data:
- measured friction values from single vehicles
- vehicle positions
Approach a)
It is necessary to equip a larger fleet of vehicles in order
to obtain a good geographical coverage and to guarantee a high credibility and
quality of the database.
Those vehicle fleets should be preferred which often operate
in the area in question and which have a digital mobile data communication
method on board which allows a low-cost data communication procedure.
The application could be improved by predicted friction
values coming from models.
The application generates location-referenced warning
messages on slippery roads due to adverse weather conditions (ice, snow, rain).
The messages are sent as information content to service providers and road
managers.
Approach b):
The data needs are in principle the same. However, the
application can already be used by a few vehicles. The idea concentrates on
local warnings within a group of vehicles. Data need to be transferred reliably
on a short-range communication line.
Dear Jörg,
I think you quite nicely packaged the EYERAR concept in your email of
yesterday. I recall that EYEAR originated within our group (#4) at the
innovation seminar. As a matter of fact, I have a feeling that the name EYEAR
came from my (mixed) head. Whether this is an innovative idea at all is maybe
questionable or at least speculative. You know, we have been involved at least
in two projects where we have actually already elaborated these issues
quite extensively.
(i) COLDPSOTS Project: We studied problematic local road weather
phenomena and features with a purpose to try to improve the present road
weather model. For this, we carried out mobile temperature and friction
measurements along specific highways in Finland in addition to analyzing known
static features along these highways (like road topography, closeness to lakes
etc). The mobile measurements revealed valuable information about prevailing
(and changing) driving conditions (in the form of friction <->
slipperiness) along the roads, when the more traditional fixed road weather
station network could provide only spotwise information. This project was
actually managed by and carried thru with Pirkko/Foreca. A continuation idea
might be e.g to have mobile instrumentation installed on route buses or trucks
which typically follow same specific routes enabling collection of huge amounts
of information for later analysis (Ilkka produced this idea at our seminar).
This would of course require a whole lot of elaboration envolving collaboration
with bus/track etc companies.
(ii) CARLINK Project: Here the goal was to develop an intelligent
wireless traffic service platform between cars supported with wireless transceivers
beside the roads/highways and also lower capacity connection directly between
cars and a Traffic Service Central Unit. The project has been carried thru with
collaborators from Luxembourg and Spain. For obvious reasons, our application
has been road weather, i.e. weather observations and forecasts form the
information which is being transmitted car-to-car. We had a pilot study testing
the system components along the major Helsinki-Turku highway late last
September.
EYEAR, as we see it, could on the one hand be seen like a
combination/continuation of COLDSPOTS-CARLINK ideology and on the other hand
could perhaps be, simply, encompassed within the Pulp Friction pilot idea.
--
Ciao,
--
- Pertti
Dear Jörg,
Thank you for the summary! Pertti already mentioned the only thing which I
recalled missing: the equipment (whatever) could be mounted on vehicles using
regular routes, another example in the countryside is milk collecting trucks.
The challenge remains in measuring equipment that is small and cheap enough. Of
course the slipperiness warning signals generated today are valuable, too,
though not giving quatitative values.
Cheers, Pirkko