Rail crossing safety

New technology by La Trobe University, to have cars and trains ‘talking’ to each other, could save an average of 37 lives every year and an estimated 100 million dollars, by eliminating rail crossing collisions, especially in rural and regional Australia.

The La Trobe system - which will extend driver ‘vision’ up to 1 km in all directions - will be trialled in 100 vehicles, the largest-known rail crossing safety study of its kind in the world.

A $4 million project by the University’s Centre for Technology Infusion, in partnership with the Australian Automotive Co-operative Research Centre, the Victorian Department of Transport and Queensland University of Technology, intends to have the technology up and running in three years.

It involves dedicated mobile-phone-style wireless networks running in the 5.9 GHz band.

The emergence of dedicated short range communications (DSRC) has led to the implementation of a wireless ad hoc network for vehicles which can be used for communications between vehicles and between vehicles and roadside equipment.

This project will integrate existing technologies such as GPS, Wi-Fi and GSM. In the system, each moving vehicle will be able to forward packets of information to other vehicles. Using this approach, there is no need for individual mobile hosts to broadcast periodic routing messages, rather, each vehicle that has important data packets would initiate the route request and establishment procedure.

The project is headed by Professor Jugdutt (Jack) Singh, Director of the Centre for Technology Infusion. He says the venture is at the forefront of a global move to ‘intelligent’ transport systems and ‘smart cars’ of the future.

Prof Singh expects new vehicles will be able to adopt the technology once this spectrum is allocated in Australia. It can also be retrofitted to cars already on the road.

There are about nine and a half thousand level crossings on Australian public roads. About 2000 are in Victoria.

Prof Singh says drivers make a staggering number of decisions, often in split seconds, so project design also includes University psychologists for human factors research.

Department of Transport senior manager railway crossing safety, Terry Spicer, says the partnership with La Trobe is helping meet recommendations made by the Parliamentary Road Safety Committee inquiry into improving level crossings.

“This technology has the potential to significantly reduce and, ultimately, eliminate collisions, injuries and fatalities at level crossings,” he said.

Prof Singh says traditional sensors, like radar, have limitations for advanced transport management systems. They have a directional field of view and cannot see very far into cross roads and they are very expensive.

“By using the latest in wireless technology, we can create 360 degree driver awareness over a longer range at far cheaper costs - and at vehicle speeds of up to 200 km per hour.”

In May, La Trobe University and the Australian AutoCRC signed a $260,000 agreement for research and training in advanced motor vehicle technology and transport engineering with two of China’s leading universities - Tongji University in Shanghai and Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Deputy vice-chancellor (research), Prof Tim Brown, says intelligent transport systems are a high priority worldwide. Estimates are that, by 2015, these systems could lead to cost savings of more than 40%, by reducing accidents and travel time. They will also cut emission, fuel and vehicle operating costs.

These two agreements, says Prof Brown, are also the first step in plans for closer research collaboration with Australian and Chinese universities and motor vehicle companies seeking new technology to underpin their growth and boost exports for their products.

Prof Singh is the key designer of the system. The psychological research is being carried out by Dr Wendy Macdonald, assoc prof in the Faculty of Health Sciences’ Centre for Ergonomics and Human Factors.

Core research partners are the AutoCRC, Victorian Department of Transport, La Trobe University and Queensland University of Technology. Collaborating partners are the Rail Co-operative Research Centre, National ICT Australia (NICTA), the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing and Embedded Systems Technology.

La Trobe University

www.latrobe.edu.au/