NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Connected Barriers: Vehicle to Barrier Communication and Networking for Single-Vehicle Crash Safety

今天，在美国，超过一半的致命车辆碰撞是“越野车”（RoR）碰撞，路边屏障是减轻其严重性的最后手段。然而，未来的车辆将在几十年前设计的路边基础设施上运行。该项目旨在通过开发一种称为连接屏障（CBs）的新型车辆到屏障（V2B）通信和网络范例，在车辆和路边屏障之间建立无线连接，从而弥合这一差距。CBs将(1)补充车载传感器技术和现有的物理屏障，(2)避免RoR碰撞，(3)在不可避免的情况下将碰撞的严重程度降至最低，以及(4)帮助发展道路安全与车辆通信和网络社区之间的相互协作，这将带来强大的技术解决方案。根据美国交通部2014年的统计寿命估算值，车祸的社会成本为每人940万美元，每年大约有1万起致命的ROR事故。如果广泛实施，该研究项目可以将致命和非致命事故发生率降低高达70%，仅在美国每年就可以挽救多达8000人的生命，并减少数十亿美元的经济损失。该项目支持2名研究生，其成果将被纳入UNL和OSU的几门课程中。项目结果的见解将有助于建立内布拉斯加州和俄亥俄州工业界和学术界的合作努力。为了实现CB愿景，该项目主要探索了三个方面：(1)通过分析现场测量、实际汽车碰撞试验和信道模型开发中的无线信道特性，建立V2B通信的基础。(2)为了实现可靠的控制反应，将开发非常高保真的障碍物辅助车辆定位和车辆障碍物同步解决方案。(3)将开发新的通信算法和协议，以传播有关障碍物和道路状况的定期信息，并在即将到来的RoR事件期间促进实时信息交换，并着眼于与现有通信标准共存。开发的解决方案将通过中西部路边安全设施的侵蚀和车辆碰撞实验进行评估，并与内布拉斯加州Eagle村和内布拉斯加州Cass县合作，在低容量郊区和农村路段进行系统评估。最后，将集成一个多时间尺度的仿真平台，包括无线信道、车辆和屏障动态、交通动态、通信和网络动态的经验测量，以提供CB范式的有效评估工具。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

More than half of fatal vehicle crashes in the US today are "run-off-road" (RoR) crashes and roadside barriers are the last means of mitigating their severity. Yet, vehicles of tomorrow are slated to operate on roadside infrastructure designed decades ago. This project aims to bridge this gap by establishing wireless connectivity between vehicles and roadside barriers by developing a novel vehicle to barrier (V2B) communication and networking paradigm called connected barriers (CBs). CBs will (1) complement on-board sensor technologies and existing physical barriers, (2) avoid RoR crashes, (3) minimize the severity of a crash when it is inevitable, and (4) help develop mutual collaborations between the roadside safety and vehicular communication and networking communities, which will lead to robust technology solutions. Based on Department of Transportation's value of a statistical life estimate in 2014, the societal cost of a crash is $9.4 million per fatality, with approximately 10,000 fatal ROR crashes each year. With widespread implementation, this research project could reduce fatal and non-fatal crash rates by up to 70%, which could save as many as 8,000 lives per year in the U.S. alone and billions of dollars in economic losses. This project supports 2 graduate students and its results will be incorporated into several courses at UNL and OSU. Insights from the project results will help establish collaborative efforts to educate both industry and academia in Nebraska and Ohio. To realize the CB vision, the project explores three main threads: (1) the foundations of V2B communication will be established through analysis of wireless channel characteristics in field measurements, actual car-crash tests, and channel model development. (2) to enable reliable control reactions, very high-fidelity barrier-assisted vehicle localization and vehicle-barrier synchronization solutions will be developed. (3) novel communication algorithms and protocols will be developed to disseminate periodic information about barrier and road conditions, and to facilitate real-time information exchange during upcoming RoR events, with an eye towards coexistence with existing communication standards. The developed solutions will be evaluated through encroachment and vehicle crash experiments in the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, and system evaluations on low-volume suburban and rural road segments in collaboration with the Village of Eagle, Nebraska, and Nebraska's Cass County. Finally, a multi-time-scale simulation platform will be integrated by including empirical measurements of the wireless channel, vehicle and barrier dynamics, traffic dynamics, and communication and network dynamics to provide effective evaluation tools of the CB paradigmThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.