February 20, 2023
A Mizzou 糖心Vlog传媒 team has developed an innovative alert system that warns drivers when they鈥檙e in danger of colliding with a mobile work zone vehicle.
By utilizing both a mounted camera and lidar, the alert system automatically assesses a vehicle’s speed and distance. If the system detects risky behavior, it automatically triggers flashing lights to warn the driver. If corrective action is not taken, a horn will sound.
The system is specifically designed for mobile work zones such as pavement striping, which involve a series of vehicles. While the uses crash cushions known as truck mounted attenuators (TMAs) to absorb impact, dozens of crashes still occur each year, resulting in injury and death.
鈥淚 believe this is going to save lives,鈥 said Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. 鈥淩ight now, what happens is someone sits in the TMA and looks back to see if a driver is not doing what they鈥檙e supposed to do and then hits the horn manually. We don鈥檛 want someone to have to do that all of the time. This will provide warnings autonomously.鈥
Adu-Gyamfi and the team used machine learning to develop the system, supplying data to enable it to recognize hazardous scenarios, such as vehicles following too closely or accelerating. The camera component provides visual input, while lidar measures the distance of the following vehicle. The system utilizes a color-coded scheme to indicate risk, with a green light recognizing safe behaviors, and a red light signaling unsafe conditions and triggering the alert.
With officials from MoDOT, Adu-Gyamfi and Professor Carlos Sun conducted two pilot studies and are now putting the final touches on the system.
They expect it to be deployed in time for the summer construction season in May. Then, in the fall, they will analyze the data to assess its effectiveness and continue to make improvements.
鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing exactly like this in the country,鈥 Adu-Gyamfi said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a project I鈥檓 really happy to be working on.鈥
While not directly tied to a separate Mizzou study around TMA safety, the system could be used on self-driving work vehicles in the future, as well.
Learn more about civil engineering at Mizzou.