Presently in Japan, the basis of a highly developed information society and a highly developed information communication social system is steadily being developed. Under these circumstances, the incorporation of vehicles into the information communication system, in another words ITS, is being strongly pushed under very concrete structures and master plan. If we were to define our target, AHS, in a single sentence, it is to provide real time cruise assistance to auto drivers.

The ITS comprehensive idea set up by the five relevant government ministries have determined nine development fields. There are 20 systematized services to be provided to users. (See Fig. 2.)
The definition of AHS is to detect and recognize the road traffic environment, to provide this information in real time to the drivers, and to provide cruise assistance.
According to this definition, AHS can be positioned as in Fig. 1 and it is our field of research. "Assistance for safe driving" and the four user services based on this, "Increasing efficiency in road management", and “Increasing efficiency in commercial vehicle operation” as shown in Fig. 2 will also be the subjects of our research.

The basic considerations for a cruise-assist system were begun in 1989 jointly by the Ministry of Construction (MOC) and industry. In 1995, the world's first automated driving test was conducted at the test course of the Public Works Research Institute of the MOC. In 1996, an automated platoon test of an 11 car group and other tests were conducted on the Joshinetsu Expressway which was not yet open. With the success of these two tests, the verification of AHS was determined and AHSRA was set up in 1996. (See Fig. 3.)

The definition and service levels of AHS are important issues that underlie the objectives of the R&D. Our association had originally set our goal as total automated driving but when we considered realistic implementation, it was deemed better to place emphasis on gradual development and evolution instead of a first full attempt at automated cruising. Currently, research in Japan clearly defines the three levels of services of AHS:
First level: AHS-i Information provision services
Second level: AHS-c Control support services
Third level: AHS-a Automated Cruise
The final level is AHS-a ("automated cruise") and this is the completely automated driving service (see Fig. 4).
AHS not only means automated cruising but is the general name of these systems.

In Japan, Advanced Cruise-Assist Highway Systems are being advanced by several related projects. We at AHSRA are mainly involved in the R&D of infrastructure. The Advanced Safety Vehicle (ASV) is responsible for R&D on the vehicle side, and the Association of Radio Industries & Business (ARIB) is handling the research on the wireless communications.
Other projects, foreign and domestic, are also conducting R&D on driving support systems but since we are ata stage just prior to actual use, coordination among related projects is becoming much more important.
AHSRA has already begun joint operations with ASV.

The period of five years from 1996 is the time allotted to our association for necessary research.
Based on our research results and those of other organizations, the systems and standards will be set and the actual introduction of AHS is scheduled in fiscal 2000.
The summary of the research in this five year period is as follows.
In fiscal 1996, the basic concepts were set up and the individual element technologies were developed.
In fiscal 1997, it was found that previous research was just too needs-oriented. Since it was important to proceed with research by setting up a system based on needs, such needs were analyzed, services to serve those needs were determined, and the requirements needed to realize those services in the system were researched and systematized.
Between 1998 and 1999, emphasis will be placed on the concrete development designs for the system and developing a social environment such as the systems, standards, bases, and education for popularization, aiming toward widespread use.
Based on these, in fiscal 2000, the verification tests and demonstration tests are planned as a target.

I will explain the research activities for fiscal 1997 in a little more detail. (See Fig. 7)


First, in the first step of the concept research, the needs and benefits have been completely analyzed based on the establishment of research systems based on said needs. The first goal of research is to clarify the services or required conditions. Next is the research to prioritize which is important when the services are implemented as concrete systems. After which, there is the research on the logical architecture that will research systematically the flow of service contents, functions, and information.

For R&D, in the beginning of the concept research, the concept construction was done jointly with the key element technology group and the concept research group for the technical aspects. The concept research progressed, and based on these results, the necessary element technology was developed and the element specifications were researched.
The system development group also participated in the concept research in the beginning according to the joint discussions and later conducted research on the physical architecture and concrete systems.
The research on actual tests will not only evaluate the final system but it is also very important to evaluate whether the research results are truly correct in each of the research phases. Therefore, evaluation systems which assess the entire project from the beginning to the end was studied and the tools required for such research evaluations, especially specifications for simulators, etc., were considered and established.
In summary, the research activities were conducted within the following four frameworks: Research on concepts, Development of element technologies, system development, and testing evaluations.

Next, let me explain briefly our future research activities. The verification tests, with an eye toward use, are scheduled in 2000. We are speeding up our R&D activities for this end, the first of which will back up scientifically and finalize the six priority principal user services selected provisionally. The second will clarify the priority systems and advance concrete designs. The third will foresee actual use and proceed with research on R&D on social and environmental aspects and discussions of economic viability and practical application.
Finally, R&D is closing in on the set goals and coordination with other groups is becoming very important. As stated previously, coordination with ASV is being intensified and joint work has also begun. We are planning to conduct verification tests in 2000 and we strongly hope to conduct joint tests with ASV at the same time.