ITS Systems Research Articles

Smart tachographs application in monitoring and controlling the Operation of Vehicles and Drivers in „ITS“ Environment

ITS systems enable information transparency, manageability and improved response of the traffic system, so they have the epithet of intelligent. The application of ITS solutions on tachographs, as devices that record all the activities of truck and bus drivers, is defined in the ISO 14813-1:2015 Standard in the context of remote data transmission from tachographs. In view of the growing problems regarding violations of regulations on working hours and mandatory vacations for mobile workers, frequent manipulations and misuse of tachographs, as well as regarding the state of traffic safety and increasing environmental pollution, the EU has set stricter conditions in the field of driving these commercial vehicles in its regulations, in the manner of implementing the ITS system of smart tachographs, which brings significant benefits, especially in terms of the work of control authorities as entities that influence better compliance with regulations and the enforcement of legal regulations.

Designing and Planning of Studies of Driver Behavior at Pedestrian Crossings Using Whole-Vehicle Simulators

The paper presents a proposed methodology for designing and planning research on driver behavior at pedestrian crossings using whole-vehicle simulators. It was assumed that dedicated research should be conducted in specific problem contexts. The problems identified were the identification of hazards and the risk of accidents involving vulnerable road users. The purpose of this identification is to determine the determinants of safety at pedestrian crossings, which should constitute guidance when designing new solutions for safety support systems at pedestrian crossings. A number of hazard factors were identified; divided into categories, including types of crossings, location, and surroundings; behavior of vulnerable road users; and attention (focus) distractors, both inside and outside the vehicle. A method for defining and selecting research scenarios and selecting a group of research participants was proposed. Additionally, it was proposed to conduct repeatable test scenarios for different driving speeds and different weather conditions. With respect to the publications on this topic, this work focuses on the process of designing and planning dedicated simulation studies, which may provide a source of guidance and good practices for other researchers. This is an example of how interdisciplinary research involving human factors, traffic organization, and ITS systems can be planned and implemented.

Driver-Centric Urban Route Planning: Smart Search for Parking

With urbanization, there is a growing need for mobility. Challenges for urban drivers include finding available parking spaces. Searching for a parking spot can be a frustrating experience, often time consuming and costly. Also, the increasing number of vehicles on the roads leads to an additional strain on traffic flow, while the search for parking spaces lowers the level of service. In inner cities, vehicles circulate in search of an available parking space, leading to an increase in travel time, fuel consumption, pollutant emissions, and a decrease in traffic safety. The search for a free parking space generates a significant increase in traffic in urban areas. To solve the parking search problem, it is necessary to develop certain strategies and measures that minimize circling in search of a parking space. The implementation of intelligent transportation systems stands out. By applying intelligent transport systems, drivers are provided with information about free parking spaces, which reduces the circulation of vehicles in search of free parking. Although initially ITS systems mainly provided services for closed parking lots and garages, with the further development of the system, the service was extended to street parking lots or open-type parking lots. These measures not only solve traffic challenges but also promote sustainability in urban areas. This article analyzes the effect of a cooperative approach of guiding vehicles to available parking spaces compared to a standard model of searching for an available parking space. Within the framework of the advanced model for searching for available space, four parking demand scenarios were defined and simulated. Based on the created traffic simulation, a comparative analysis was made between the classic and cooperative approach, while the primary differences are manifested in the load of the traffic flow A simulation model was developed using the road network from the urban center of Zagreb.

Spatial Dimension of Transport Exclusion Related to Statutory Trade Restriction—The Use of ITS Tools in Studies of Sustainable Urban Development

The problem of statutory restrictions of the freedom to conduct business activities is a subject addressed by many researchers. On the other hand, there is little research into the spatial aspect of this phenomenon and its impact on the quality of life of the inhabitants of urban centres in terms of their exclusion from one of the key motivations for travelling, namely shopping trips. The main purpose of the article is to determine the impact of the introduction of a statutory restriction on Sunday trading on sustainable urban development in terms of identifying areas excluded from free access to such services within a large urban settlement in Poland. Our studies on accessibility by car utilised data from ITS systems, the assumptions of the probabilistic Huff Model, and methods to determine market catchment areas. The data used in the study were based on the results of a questionnaire survey. The research procedure was conducted for eight scenarios that covered two periods (March 2019 and November 2020) on trading and non-trading Sundays. The conducted research shows that changes in the temporal accessibility of grocery shops in Łódź within the analysed periods are noticeable for trading and non-trading Sundays. In both cases, accessibility by private car is decidedly worse on non-trading Sundays. Transport exclusion from accessibility to grocery shops applies, in particular, to residents of peripheral areas of the city and is further compounded by the statutory Sunday retail restrictions implemented nationwide.

Trends in Development and Integration of ITS

ITS applications are used in different traffic and transportation segments and enable processes automatization, acquizition and processing of large amounts of data, real time monitoring and control, providing services to clients etc. The main aims of the ITS introduction are the improvement of the trafic and transportation system functioning and of the provided services for clients. The ICT development has enabled the usage of the large number of smart devices, which can generate different characteristics of physical objects and exchange data with other devices and systems. This has led to the IoT concept in which the intelligent management of physical objects, based on processing and analyse of the large amounts of data, is possible. The aim of this paper is the review of the latest trends in the ITS systems’ development in the context of new technologies, social changes and users’ requests. In the paper there are described the ITS, the IoT and the Big Data analytics, which enable the intelligent transport services provided to the clients.

The use of a Blockchain-based System in Traffic Operations to promote Cooperation among Connected Vehicles

This paper intends to present some ideas for the implementation of cooperative ITS systems based on the Blockchain Technology (BT) concept. Blockchain technology has been recently introduced and, in this paper, we discuss a system that is based on a dedicated blockchain, able to involve both drivers and city administrations in the adoption of promising and innovative technologies that will create cooperation among connected vehicles. The proposed blockchain-based system can allow city administrators to reward drivers when they are willing to share travel data. The system manages in a special way the creation of new coins which are assigned to drivers and institutions participating actively in the system. Moreover, the system allows keeping a complete track of all transactions and interactions between drivers and city management on a completely open and shared platform. The main idea is to combine connected vehicles with BT to promote Cooperative ITS use and a better use of infrastructures.

Comparison of Vehicle Detection Techniques applied to IP Camera Video Feeds for use in Intelligent Transport Systems

Vehicle detection is an important area in Transport and Artificial Intelligence. Through vehicle detection techniques, vehicles can be located across different images. Some of these models are robust enough to identify parts of vehicles in images where the vehicle might be partially occluded. Recent advances in detection methods gave rise to a range of different techniques that can be used for recognition and detection of vehicles. Although each technique has its merits, it is not always the case that the adopted model works well for scenarios involving IP Cameras. The motivation for this study is to compare several state-of-the-art techniques, including deep learning models and computer vision approaches. A set of experiments are developed in order to test these models on a number of low quality IP camera footages set in the transport domain in order to measure detection and recognition accuracy. The final evaluation compares detection accuracy using mean average precision, the semantics of the recognised vehicle as well as recognition robustness when applied to a dataset that contains images with different light conditions. The study also looks at persistence in recognition across frames in video data and a detailed description of the dataset used to train the evaluated models. Finally, the paper also goes through some scenarios that applies the results obtained in this study to ITS systems that use IP camera feeds.

The Impact of Weather on Traffic Speed in Urban Area

The issue of the impact of weather conditions on trip speed of vehicles has been studied for a long time and it is still the subject of many scientific researches. The impact of atmospheric conditions on the speed with which drivers drive their vehicles seems to be obvious. Good weather conditions, sunny weather with good visibility surely provokes higher speed while rainfall, wind and visibility limitations will force drivers to reduce speed, drive with more concentration, and be more cautious. In the light of emerging new possibilities of acquiring data on vehicle speed, especially travel speed indicating the speed of trip between designated speed measurement points using modern measurement technology new researches are possible. Increasingly in the ITS systems being implemented mainly in urban areas, ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras are one of the ITS element. These cameras make it possible to determine the real time of appearance of the vehicle in the register area of the camera, thus determining both the matrix of trips between each two observation points (ANPR cameras), but also the vehicle’s ride time between successive cameras, and thus the speed of trip. In conjunction with data on weather conditions registered by several dedicated weather stations, they allow to significantly increase the research sample in terms of vehicle speed, and thus to obtain a statistically more confident inference. Thus, it gives a chance for further analysis regarding the impact of atmospheric conditions on road traffic conditions, including on travel speed and capacity of transport infrastructure. The article will present the results of empirical analyses to determine the impact of weather conditions (including temperature, ice thickness, air pressure and precipitation) on the vehicle trip speed.

Recommendations for actions concerning supporting ITS developments for VRUs

IntroductionThis paper presents some of the work conducted in FP7 VRUITS project to draw a set of general recommendations for actions at the EU level aiming to enhance the deployment of ITS systems directed to improve the safety, mobility and comfort of vulnerable road users.MethodThe work started by identifying potential barriers, as well as recommendations to overcome these barriers. After that, similar recommendations were combined and prioritised, which are discussed via a workshop and questionnaire. In addition, a qualitative analysis was used to select thirteen main recommendations, for which a quantitative Benefit Analyses and a Multi-Criteria analysis were conducted.ResultsIn total, over 200 barriers and recommendations were identified for the 10 selected ITS systems. After several steps 13 main general recommendations were selected and ranked according to priority.Conclusions1) A wide range of different type of measures directed to different stakeholders is needed 2) Focus should be on facilitating the implementation of the 13 main recommendations, 3) Benefits of implementation of the recommendations can be in the order of billion(s) of euros, and 4) Main challenges are achieving cooperation between the different stakeholders, the different environments, the long time horizon for implementation and the high implementation costs.

Integration of vulnerable road users in cooperative ITS systems

IntroductionThis paper describes the development of an architecture for the integration of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), i.e. pedestrians, cyclists and powered two-wheelers (PTWs) in Cooperative ITS (C-ITS) systems, and the requirements for VRU devices.MethodsThis paper starts with a literature overview on research related to safety applications using communication between vehicle and VRU, and an analysis of the different use cases for C-ITS for VRUs. An architecture is developed, starting from an architecture of C-ITS systems and incorporating the different alternative configuration for VRUs. Starting from the architecture and the use cases, the requirements for VRU devices are defined. Finally, a roadmap regarding C-ITS applications for VRUs is developed.ResultsC-ITS technologies allow to communicate with low latency in highly dynamic environments. C-ITS will be integrated in vehicles and can also become available for VRUs, either as an application on a smartphone or as a dedicated device, which can be integrated in the VRU’s vehicle. Two levels of use cases can be identified: awareness of the presence of VRUs near potentially dangerous situations, and collision risk warning, based on trajectories of the road users. A roadmap was developed aligned with the roadmap of the automotive industry.ConclusionsAwareness related use cases are relatively close to the market, as they do not put stringent requirements to the (localization) sensors at infrastructure or vehicles. For the collision risk warning use case, the technical requirements for VRU devices towards sensor accuracy and calculation capabilities are challenging. Other challenges are power consumption, context sensitivity, channel congestion, privacy and security of messages. Standardisation of the messages exchanged between VRUs and other road users and infrastructure is a key issue.

Impact of information on risk attitudes: Implications on valuation of reliability and information

Risk attitudes are an important behavioural characteristic that influences people's valuation of information and reliability. In a transport context, information has become widely accessible to road users through ITS systems, GPS technology and the internet justifying the importance of understanding the valuation of information by travellers. There have been a number of studies that have looked at the value of information and the value of reliability for a road user. However, to date there has not been a study that explicitly evaluates the impact of having information within a choice set on an individual's risk attitudes, which ultimately affects their valuation for information and reliability. This study conducts a controlled laboratory experiment, using methods of experimental economics, to measure the risk attitudes of users with and without the presence of information in the choice set. A model derived from Expected Utility Theory is used to infer the risk attitudes of the participants. The results of the analysis indicate that the presence of information in the choice set reduces risk aversion, which causes a reduction in people's valuation of information and reliability. It is critical to systematically incorporate these differences into behaviour models, since neglecting this fundamental difference could result in erroneous policy decisions, with respect to overpricing information, or inappropriately allocating funds for information systems.

Fentanyl Iontophoretic Transdermal System (IONSYS(®)) can be Safely used in the Hospital Environment with X-Rays, Computerized Tomography and Radiofrequency Identification Devices.

IntroductionFentanyl iontophoretic transdermal system (fentanyl ITS, IONSYS®) is a patient-controlled analgesia system used for the management of acute postoperative pain, designed to be utilized in a hospital setting. The objective of the two studies was to determine if fentanyl ITS could be safely used with X-rays, computerized tomography (CT) scans and radiofrequency identification (RFID) devices.MethodsThe ITS system has two components: controller and drug unit; the studies utilized ITS systems without fentanyl, referred to as the ITS Placebo system. The first study evaluated the effect of X-radiation on the operation of an ITS Placebo system. Five ITS Placebo systems were exposed to X-rays (20 and 200 mSv total radiation dose—the 200 mSv radiation dose represents a tenfold higher exposure than in clinical practice) while operating in the Ready Mode and five were exposed while operating in the Dose Mode. The second study evaluated the effect of RFID (worst-case scenario of direct contact with an RFID transmitter) on the operation of an ITS Placebo system. During these tests, observations of the user interface and measurements of output voltage confirmed proper function throughout all operational modes (Ready Mode, Dose Mode, End-of-Use Mode, and End-of-Life Mode).ResultsThe ITS Placebo system met all specifications and no functional anomalies were observed during and following X-ray exposure at two radiation dose levels or exposure at six different combinations of RFID frequencies and field strengths.ConclusionThe performance of the ITS system was unaffected by X-ray exposure levels well beyond those associated with diagnostic X-rays and CT scans, and by exposure to radiofrequency field strengths typically generated by RFID devices. These results provide added confidence to clinicians that the fentanyl ITS system does not need to be removed during diagnostic X-rays and CT scans and can also be utilized in close proximity to RFID devices.FundingThe studies and writing of this manuscript were supported financially by The Medicines Company.

European tendencies and co-operation in the field of ITS systems - national achievements and challenges in Hungary

Abstract The article presents the role of intelligent transport systems/services related to the implementation of the essential European and Hungarian transport policy objectives. The ‘ITS Directive’ will provide a framework for the tasks/works to be performed in the forthcoming years within the priority areas of ITS. The European Commission published regulations / specifications for the priority actions in the form of delegated acts defining the tasks/responsibilities of Member States. Regional/European co-operation for Hungary started after the EU-accession of the country. Hungary was an active partner within the European CONNECT and EasyWay projects, currently Hungary is a member of the CROCODILE consortium.

Quantification of the Effect of ITS on CO2 Emissions from Road Transportation

The paper presents an overview of the final results of the 7FP ICT-EMISSIONS project that developed and validated a novel methodology and tool set to evaluate the impact of ICT-related transport measures on mobility and CO2 emissions of vehicle fleets under real-world conditions. The methodology combines traffic and emission modelling at micro and macro scales. The integration of these scales is an important feature because a measure to influence the behaviour of single vehicles may have an impact on the whole network, while traffic management at the network level may influence the behaviour of the single vehicles. The paper presents results of a number of ITS systems including Variable Speed Limit (VSL), Green Navigation (GN), Urban Traffic Control (UTC), Ecodriving and Adaptive Cruise Control Systems (ACC). These measures have been tested for concrete application cases implemented in the cities of Turin, Madrid and Rome. Starting point were real-world data collected by means of floating cars. The investigations have taken into account different penetration rates of ICT measures, as well as different traffic conditions (e.g. free flow, congested). Each case has been modelled for the current and at least on future fleet composition. The results indicate that ITS are overall able to contribute to CO2 emissions reduction by several percent points; the effects, nevertheless, are different depending on local conditions. The CO2 benefit is also found to be constrained by the penetration rates of the on-road ITS equipped vehicles: as this share increases a maximum is reached at up to 50% penetration rate and under non-congested conditions.

Large-scale automated proactive road safety analysis using video data

Due to the complexity and pervasiveness of transportation in daily life, the use and combination of larger data sets and data streams promises smarter roads and a better understanding of our transportation needs and environment. For this purpose, ITS systems are steadily being rolled out, providing a wealth of information, and transitionary technologies, such as computer vision applied to low-cost surveillance or consumer cameras, are already leading the way.This paper presents, in detail, a practical framework for implementation of an automated, high-resolution, video-based traffic-analysis system, particularly geared towards researchers for behavioural studies and road safety analysis, or practitioners for traffic flow model validation. This system collects large amounts of microscopic traffic flow data from ordinary traffic using CCTV and consumer-grade video cameras and provides the tools for conducting basic traffic flow analyses as well as more advanced, pro-active safety and behaviour studies. This paper demonstrates the process step-by-step, illustrated with examples, and applies the methodology to a case study of a large and detailed study of roundabouts (nearly 80,000 motor vehicles tracked up to 30 times per second driving through a roundabout).In addition to providing a rich set of behavioural data about Time-to-Collision and gap times at nearly 40 roundabout weaving zones, some data validation is performed using the standard Measure of Tracking Accuracy with results in the 85–95% range.

Reliability of an in‐vehicle warning system for railway level crossings – a user‐oriented analysis

This study analyses the reliability of an in-vehicle warning system developed in Finland during 2008–2010. The system is based on the positioning of trains using GPS, calculation of the states of level crossings on a server and in-vehicle equipment that retrieves information about the states of level crossings from the server. Information about the reliability of the system is very relevant for accurate estimation of the impacts of the system and for estimating the potential for improvements to it. The study starts with a description of the system under analysis, continues by defining the concept of reliability and provides an estimate for the reliability of the system from the user point of view. To achieve this objective, the study defines the relevant concepts and describes a methodology for analysis of the reliability of the system. The main input to the analysis of reliability includes a brief overview of existing concepts related to the reliability of in-vehicle ITS systems and empirical data obtained in a field test carried out in southern Finland. The analysis shows that the expected functionality has been achieved, but the reliability level of the pilot system needs improvement, especially reduction in the share of missed alarms.

A Framework for Supporting Network Continuity in Vehicular IPv6 Communications

The appearance of recent standards about cooperative ITS architectures towards a reference communication stack has been an inflection point in the research about vehicular networks. The ISO Communication Access for Land Mobiles (CALM) and the ETSI European ITS communication architecture have paved the way towards real and interoperable vehicular cooperative systems. Within these convergent proposals, IPv6 communications are recognized as a key component to enable traffic efficiency and infotainment applications. The proper operation of these applications and the achievement of value-added ITS services require an uninterrupted network connectivity. This paper addresses this problem by proposing a novel communication stack to support the provision of continuous and secure IPv6 vehicular communications. The solution follows the ISO/ETSI guidelines for the development of cooperative ITS systems and is based on standardized technologies such as Network Mobility (NEMO) protocol to provide an integral management of IPv6mobility. The solution integrates IEEE 802.21 media independent handover services for optimizing the handover process. While the support to the handover optimization offered by the proposed ITS communication stack is demonstrated through a mobility use case, a real testbed supporting most of the communications features is developed to validate and assess the real performance of the stack design.

Semantic Web Related to ITS Systems

This paper describes a way to better navigate in an ever increasing number of standards in the field of ITS. Short overview about fundamental ITS models is presented, the principles of related knowledge system are described. Ontology approach is used, especially as domain-oriented ITS ontology, where a new hybrid method is explained.

Influence of age, gender and delay on overtaking dynamics

Overtaking is one of the most dangerous manoeuvres on two-lane rural highways. The most influential factors are related to drivers, so ITS and assistance systems are not yet common. This research is based on experimental data of overtaking manoeuvres collected using an instrumented passenger car, equipped with four cameras, laser rangefinders and a global positioning service (GPS) tracker. This vehicle was driven along four different road segments in the surroundings of Valencia (Spain) at a speed slightly slower than the operating speed of each segment. Overtaking time and speeds were measured. Unlike previous work, the influence of human factor was also considered. Age and gender of overtaking driver, as well as time spent following were used to characterise this influence. More than 200 manoeuvres were recorded and the influence of driver characteristics and delay on gap acceptance, manoeuvre duration and speed differences have been analysed. Results show differences in behaviour between age and gender groups, since young male overtaking drivers have shown a more aggressive behaviour. Overtaking times were around 1 s lower than other drivers, whereas average speed difference was 4 km/h higher. Collected data and their analysis have provided a basis to review design criteria and to develop future assistance systems.

ITETRIS: A modular simulation platform for the large scale evaluation of cooperative ITS applications

Cooperative ITS systems are expected to improve road traffic safety and efficiency, and provide infotainment services on the move, through the dynamic exchange of messages between vehicles, and between vehicles and infrastructure nodes. The complexity of cooperative ITS systems and the interrelation between its components requires their extensive testing before deployment. The lack of simulation platforms capable to test, with high modelling accuracy, cooperative ITS systems and applications in large scale scenarios triggered the implementation of the EU-funded iTETRIS simulation platform. iTETRIS is a unique open source simulation platform characterized by a modular architecture that allows integrating two widely adopted traffic and wireless simulators, while supporting the implementation of cooperative ITS applications in a language-agnostic fashion. This paper presents in detail the iTETRIS simulation platform, and describes its architecture, standard compliant implementation, operation and new functionalities. Finally, the paper demonstrates iTETRIS large scale cooperative ITS evaluation capabilities through the implementation and evaluation of cooperative traffic congestion detection and bus lane management applications. The detailed description and implemented examples provide valuable information on how to use and exploit iTETRIS simulation potential.