June 14, 2011, Valladolid, Spain |
SICE presents its DANTE R&D project at the inaugural Innovacarretera Fair
The Innovacarretera Fair was held on 9 June 2011, organised by the Spanish Road Technology Platform to present the latest innovations in road safety. Five exhibitors were at the fair, including SICE with its DANTE Project (Development of New Technologies for Integrated Improvement of Road Safety and Intersection Design). The system presented is to improve road safety at T junctions and crossroads on conventional roads, where most serious accidents happen on roads of that type.
The fair was an opportunity to see live demonstrations of the advances being made in road technologies to help reduce the number and seriousness of accidents. It was held at the Cidaut facility in Mojados (Valladolid), which has its own test track.
The installation consists of two stereoscopic cameras that detect the trajectory and speedy of the vehicle on the main road when it is 80–250 metres from the intersection. A Lidar system detects any other vehicles within 80 m of the intersection, while a Stop-control system detects the speed and trajectory of the vehicle on the secondary road, determining whether or not it is going to stop. These integrated systems detect what is happening at the intersection by means of a centralising system that analyses data and, if a possible conflict is detected, triggers an alarm to warn the drivers involved. There are two ways of communicating with road users: with variable messages and beacons of different types on the road itself, plus an I2V system on the vehicle, presenting the information on a PDA device.
Those visiting the fair were shown how the system works by simulating the type of conflicts that research for the project found to be the most common at such intersections: the risks of front/side collisions, running into cars pulling out slowly in front for the vehicle on the main road, and finally the vehicle on the secondary road approaching the intersection too fast and failing to comply with the Stop sign.
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