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Teruo Yamauchi General Manager, Communication and Cooperation Department AHSRA |
1. The Position of Japan's AHS Research Program
There are many advocates of the need to reduce traffic accidents and protect the environment in Europe and America, and there are heightened expectations for AHS research in cooperative vehicle-highway as a means to resolve those problems.
In Japan, AHS research was largely centered on cooperative vehicle-highway from the beginning. The results obtained over a seven-year period are having an impact on research programs overseas and are also receiving very favorable evaluations.
Information we have communicated about the results of AHS research on cooperative vehicle-highway in Japan has been useful to research institutions in other countries of the world in terms of concepts, research and development methods, project organization, and so on. It has provided an advanced model that has been extremely influential.
The specific influence includes, first of all, the concept of AHS-i, c, and a for development and practical application. This has been widely recognized by research institutions and road administrators in other countries, and has come to be accepted internationally as a common concept.
Our methods of setting services and requirements have been very favorably evaluated in Europe, America, and Asia, where they have been put to active use as research methods in analyzing accident causes, selecting services, analyzing effectiveness, and so on.
As another example, other countries have also paid attention to our method of research and development through coordination between the government and private sector. They have begun to accept this as a model for research and development organization.
2. Status of AHS Research Activities in Other Countries
I recall that before we began our AHS research program, research in Europe and America was focused primarily on autonomous safety vehicles. At present, they are taking up research on measures taken immediately before accidents occur, using cooperative vehicle-highway systems, in order to achieve greater safety, improve the environment, and protect the environment.
(1) Status of AHS Research Activities in the United States
[1] Research for the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) (Figure 1)
A law known as TEA21 has been proposed in America, and research based on the federal government initiative called IVI has been a major research topic during the period from 1998 to September 2003.
To describe this in terms of driver assistance in the AHSRA, the substance of this initiative is to promote research on driving safety support systems using infrastructure-based and cooperative vehicle-highway systems under Intersection Collision Avoidance (ICA). This is being carried out as a program of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
The US ten-year plan announced two years ago sets the goal
of deploying infrastructure to support intersection collision countermeasures
in major metropolitan areas by the year 2010. We can see that a shift is taking
place from stand-alone vehicle systems to cooperative vehicle-highway systems.
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Figure 1 |
[2] Vehicle Safety Communication Consortium (VSCC) Establishment and Research Promotion (Figure 2)
VSCC is a mainly private-sector consortium centered on automobile
manufacturers. It was founded in 2002 with financial assistance from the US
Department of Transportation (USDOT). Specifically, the main focus of research
is cooperative vehicle-highway, road-to-vehicle communications, and vehicle-to-vehicle
communications for the purpose of driver safety support. VSCC is promoting research
involving utilization of digital maps for this purpose. Digital maps are included
as part of the IVI project in the form of the Enhanced Digital Map (ED Map).
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Figure 2 |
[3] Research on automated highway systems
The state of California has been the leader in the automated cruise field, and work has been promoted mainly by Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) at the University of California and by CALTRANS, the California Department of Transportation. They have initiated and are operating a project called the Cooperative Vehicle-Highway Automation System (CVHAS). Japanese automobile manufacturers are also participating, and the project is promoting research leading toward cooperative vehicle-highway and automated cruise.
One part of this project that is coming quite close to practical application is precision parking for public buses and other such vehicles. This enables buses to stop at the road shoulder without leaving any gap between it and the bus, so that handicapped and elderly passengers can board the bus from a bus stop with almost no need to step up. They have developed a system with accuracy of about 5 mm, and it has been adopted for trials in the Los Angeles suburbs by Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a related organization.
This is also being promoted with goal of deployment for actual use in automatic guidance during merging and diverging, operation of snowplows, and so on. Tests are now underway.
In June of this year, the FHWA organized the National IVI (NIVI) demonstration
which had exhibits on accident prevention scenarios for intersections, cooperative
vehicle-highway systems for buses and trucks, and so on. The same event was
held in 2000, also with demonstrations. At that time, only buses and trucks
were used in the demonstrations, so the accident prevention scenarios for intersections
shown at the recent event represent something new. This demonstration gave the
impression that they have begun concentrating very powerfully on reducing accidents
in intersections.
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Figure 3 |
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Figure 4 |
Figure 4 presents a specific example. This shows automated cruise for snowplows that is a project being promoted primarily by the Minnesota state DOT. The photograph on the left illustrates how magnetic tape laid along the shoulder strip is detected by sensors so that drivers can drive without worrying about what is ahead. Snow removal often takes place in extremely bad weather, but the project boasts that even if drivers are unable to see ahead, they can drive safely by driving along the magnetic tape.
The photograph on the right shows an actual driving scene
overlaid with a yellow line representing a heads-up display. With this, drivers
can drive accurately in their lane even around curves by watching the heads-up
display image, even if they cannot see the road ahead. Development is proceeding
with the enthusiasm that comes from knowing the system is due to be installed
in phases on the 700 snowplows owned by the city of Minneapolis.
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Figure 5 |
[4] Status of Research on Positioning Technology (Figure 5)
As I noted earlier, research on positioning technology is
going on in Minnesota using magnetic markers (tape).
Various tests are also being carried out on systems using
heads-up displays together with combined high-accuracy digital maps and GPS,
and other such human machine interfaces, which are important topics for the
future.
Apart from snowplow driving support, specific topics include support for buses driving on the shoulder (for efficient operation on expressways). This requires lane-keeping, driving control, and other such technologies to make it possible to drive buses in extremely narrow spaces. AHS is being put to use here, as well.
This shows the example of driving on the shoulder (Figure
6).
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Figure 6 |
The public buses drive in the far right side of the road. It is extremely difficult to drive there, because the shoulder and the bus are about the same width. AHS is applied to this task (GPS and digital map combined with heads-up display, etc.) so that vehicles can drive more or less in their lane without the driver even touching the steering wheel.
Here we see an example of cruising in a convoy of three trucks,
a system being developed primarily by PATH and CALTRANS (Figure 7). Not only
does this system operate more trucks than the CHAUFFEUR system in Europe, but
the last two trucks are trailing automatically like ducklings behind a mother
duck. Much of the transport in America is handled by trucks, and this kind of
technology is being developed to reduce driver fatigue and protect the environment.
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Figure 7 |
[5] Status of Research on Human Factors
The human beings who are driving are an extremely large factor in accidents. Given this fact, research is proceeding on the understanding that information support from infrastructure and optimum methods for conveying diverse information to drivers are crucial issues for drive assist in intersections and other such dangerous locations where vehicles cross in complex ways.
Basic research on human factors has begun, centered largely on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (USDOT-NHTSA) and the Federal Highway Administration (USDOT-FHWA).
(2) Status of AHS Research Activities in Europe
[1] The eSafety Initiative (eSAFETY) (Figure 8)
The EU is presently experiencing approximately 40,000 traffic accident fatalities per year. Consequently, they have proclaimed the goal of reducing traffic accident fatalities 50% by the year 2010.
eSAFETY is an overall framework for research on topics of
traffic safety and increased efficiency. The cruise-assist research by cooperative
vehicle-highway that we have been promoting is also positioned within that framework.
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Figure 8 |
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Figure 9 |
[2] ADASE 2 (Figure 9)
Safety measures taken immediately preceding accidents are a central topic in the development of driver safety systems. Cooperative Vehicle-Highway Systems are an important item in the research road map that represents a shared recognition of issues among the players under ADASE 2.
Figure 10 shows the road map for ADASE 2. Night vision and
lane departure warning represent the -current level. The program is being promoted
with the ultimate objective of more advanced technologies for platooning, automated
cruise, and so on. The horizontal axis shows what elements are required for
this objective. The size of the black dots indicates the level of importance.
One of the items on the horizontal axis is infrastructure. The current, sixth
stage framework shows how infrastructure occupies a place of importance -- especially
for driving assist in city traffic, obstacle collision prevention, and so on
-- that would be impossible to achieve without cooperative vehicle-highway.
Europe is also coming closer to Japan's way of thinking about AHS.
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Figure 10 |
[3] Inter-Vehicle Hazard Warning (IVHW) (Figure 11)
This is a driver support system that uses vehicle-to-vehicle
communications and road-to-vehicle communications to provide a service to notify
vehicles following behind about standing vehicles, construction work, and so
on, on the road ahead. The technology corresponds to the application use of
DSRC in Japan. Figure 12 is a schematic view. When one cruising lane is under
construction, the roadside system broadcasts that information in advance to
notify vehicles, which then change lanes to avoid collision. Actual tests are
currently being carried out, with the EU playing a focal role.
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Figure 11 |
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Figure 12 |
[4] CHAUFFEUR-2 (Figure 13)
The objectives of CHAUFFEUR-2 research are to improve fuel consumption, to preserve the environment and achieve an economic impact, to reduce fatigue of commercial vehicle drivers, etc.
The current CHAUFFEUR-2 system is made up of Adaptive Cruise
Control (ACC), image processing, and GPS. The statement that "vehicles following
the lead vehicle are linked to it electronically" describes the CHAUFFEUR-1
system. Use of ACC makes it possible to follow behind while maintaining appropriate
headway, so that CHAUFFEUR-2 has evolved in terms of drive assist. One other
major feature of CHAUFFEUR-2 is that research envisions use of the system on
ordinary roads rather than on dedicated roads. Some two demonstrations were
held in the past. The AHSRA was also invited to attend, and took part in test
rides and technical exchange. Figure 14 shows a scene of a CHAUFFEUR-1 demonstration.
These are 40-ton vehicles, and the lead vehicle is being manually operated.
The vehicle following behind can operate with a 10-meter headway while keeping
in its lane and maintaining a speed of 80/100 km/h.
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Figure 13 |
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Figure 14 |
[5] Status of Research on Positioning Technology (Figure15)
In a region like Europe, which has so many national borders, positioning is an extremely important topic in terms of vehicle surveillance and other such security concerns. Research is going forward to determine which of many alternative systems should be used.
The ACT Map Project was initiated in 2001 to enable vehicles
to determine their own locations on the road system. The equivalent of the ED
map project in the US, this is being promoted as part of the GPS-utilizing system
in the GALILEO project.
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Figure 15 |
(3) Status of AHS Research Activities in Asia (Figure 16)
In Asia, AHS research programs are also underway in South
Korea, Australia, and China. South Korea is conducting research in the application
of Telematics to road-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Although
my information is slightly old, I understand they are testing automated cruise
systems using magnetic guidance, and they will sooner or later shift to a camera
recognition method. Australia is moving ahead on ETC and monitoring of commercial
vehicles. China is testing ETC on test courses.
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Figure 16 |
3. International Activities of the AHSRA
(1) Contribution to the International Task Force on Vehicle-Highway Automation (ITFVHA)
The ITFVHA, usually referred to as the AHS Workshop, is a forum for intergovernmental exchange of views in Europe, Asia, and America. The AHSRA has also been taking part under the guidance of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This has taken the form of information sharing by presentation of research results, exchanges of views, printing of the proceeding minutes, and so on.
We consider this activity to be important as it allows use of an international forum for public information activity on technology to strongly highlight Japan's leading position for leaders and stakeholders in other countries. This year's meeting will be held in Paris.
(2) Publication of Research Results (Dissemination of Information)
We have presented approximately 80 papers at the past nine meetings of the ITS World Congress. This is the largest number of papers presented by any single organization.
We have distributed technical materials on the latest research results at the Congress venues, and have managed to convey an understanding of our activities to the parties concerned in other countries. We also take the occasion to share information through technical exchange with researchers and research institutions in the area when we take part in international conferences.
(3) Holding the Demo2000 Joint Tests
Demo2000 was held in 2000 on the test course of the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. We invited ministerial-level participation from nine countries, and 2,400 people from 18 countries took part. Test ride events were held in parallel with technical lectures, resulting in what we feel was a new level of international understanding of our activities.
Three overseas organizations (including one public organization) also took part in the joint tests, making it an occasion for international testing from multiple perspectives.
4. Future Program Development
(1) Collection of Information
Major projects being promoted in the United States and Europe: These include SAFETEA, which has taken over from TEA21, and an upgrade of eSAFETY. We would like to study these changes in legislation and other activities to learn how they will impact the former IVI proposal as well as currently operating projects. Follow-up on AHS technology that is at the testing level in other countries: They will no doubt be bringing the various technologies I introduced up to date, and we would like to further survey the substance of any changes and feed it back into our own research.
AHS applications technology related to communications: This technology mediates between road and vehicles and is used to transmit vital information in electronic form. Therefore it will be necessary to study this technology carefully in order to understand any changes that are taking place.
(2) Dissemination of Information
It is our hope that we can increase the number of AHS friends and colleagues by introducing the results of our research at international conferences and other such occasions. We will also use our Web site to inform more people about the technology we have developed.
In addition, we hope to carry on sustained information exchanges with influential organizations in related fields in other countries. Our aim is to increase understanding of our program as well as to gain greater understanding of the information they have to offer.