This report analyzes advances in auto industry safety - enhancements of car operation with computerized radar and telecommunications devices to avoid or reduce the risk of collisions. The topic is presented in connection with a lager goal - to build nation-wide Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) that eventually will create a symbiosis of a car and a road to reduce (or even eliminate) drivers mistakes.
The topic is very important and timely for our society - every year thousands of people are being killed in car accidents and millions are injured. Our economy losses from traffic accidents are enormous, and the government is trying to improve the situation by:
Construction of new roads and timely maintenance performing
Mandatory restrictions of speed, use of car gadgets and other
R&D and development of ITS, which eventually release drivers from most of the burden to make driving decisions and to be mistaken.
The economy is also suffering from road congestions and associated with such congestions car pollutions. The report addresses the role of the ITS in reduction harmful for our environment car pollutions.
ITS development, at the present time, mostly concentrated on a car itself; exceptions are “intelligent” tolling, changeable road signs and other. Symbiosis of car operation functions with enhancement supported by radar and telecommunications technologies seems to be a very effective way to construct a car as a part of ITS. The goal is to reduce probability of driver’s mistakes, which are the main cause of accidents. This goal can be achieved by putting a burden to analyze the road situation and to make decisions based on such an analysis on a computer. Such a computer is supported by radars for sensing the road situation and by telecommunications devices to communicate with other vehicles, intelligent road and law enforcement/emergency personnel.
The report analyzes technologies and markets for CDPS - Collision Detection Prevention Systems. They include RCDPS -Radar CDPS and CCDPS - Communications CDPS. Devices, which belong to different classes, can work either independently, or together, supporting each other.
This report shows that both classes of the devices were adopted from other industries, namely radar and telecommunications. This adoption requires significant adjustments; and a design of the systems specific for car collision prevention application.
Major specifics of RCDPS:
Required distance of observation. It is usually not more than 200 m, but can be as small as a couple of meters. This resulted in particular antenna design and small output power.
Operation. A driver is not an operator for a RCDPS device. In an ideal case, drivers even not suppose to know how radar functions and what the car reactions on radar sensing are. Such situation is untypical for usual radar applications, attended by skillful operators, whose only job is to operate radar. In the RCDPS case, an automatic computerized driver-device interface is required, which is a challenge for designers.
Jamming condition. In the RCDPS case, any obstacle visible by an antenna pattern can be a source of jamming.
Size. The RCDPS devices have to be contained in very confined spaces inside of the car. This put limitations on their size.
Regulatory. Specific frequency bands are allocated to the RCDPS devices. Another issue is allowed RF interference: modern cars are full of electronics, and each new device is a potential source of interference. Standardization in this area is required, which should take into consideration car environment.
The CCDPS devices have fewer specifics, though they have to be also designed for each task - as a rule, they cannot be taken from other applications and put in a car. Examples of CCDPS include a GPS receiver, communications between cars close proximity to create a “collective” car to take intelligent decisions to accelerate or to break; another example is “non-stop” tolling.
The report also analyzes the evolving 5.9 GHz DSRC technology as an example of the ITS development.
The report analyzes the CDPS market and provides a market forecast for 2009-2013. The analysis is based on the author’s model of the market and the use of publicly available information as well as interviews with vendors.
Altogether, the authors goal was to provide a comprehensive picture for the CDPS technologies and market, and present their benefit and limitations. The analyzed systems are becoming a part of ITS, which function and protocols are also analyzed in this report.
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