Background

• Pedestrian safety is a primary traffic issue, especially in urban environment.
• Pedestrian traffic presents considerable challenges in transit bus operating environment.
• Despite advances in various sensing technologies, the application for pedestrian detection still demands further research and experimental evaluation, and eventual economic and reliable deployment of technologies.

Objectives

Exploratory studies of pedestrian detection methods with implementation on transit buses:

• Conducting experimental evaluation of candidate sensing technologies
• Investigating the performance characteristics and restrictions of selected sensors, and
• Establishing specifications of a feasible deployment system for field operational tests.

Methodology

Pedestrian and obstacle warning problems can be categorized in four processing stages: detection, tracking, hazard assessment, and warning or actuation. The challenges of pedestrian detection exist at various stages.

The applicability of a single type of sensor for different operating conditions is difficult. Considering the technical issues and complications, it is necessary to deploy different types of sensors in an integrated system to serve the necessary functions overall.

In defining the functionalities of a platform for transit bus, there will be two main categories of sensors: presence and tracking. The presence sensors are for the existence of targets in close ranges to the vehicle when the bus is stationery at bus stops or intersections, and tracking sensors for following moving targets when they are relatively far away from the vehicle.

For the exploratory study in this project, the focus of initial testing is for pedestrians in the vicinity of the bus. The candidate locations are front and rear corners and near the door entries.

The project has preliminary plans to include, but not limited to, the following types of sensors: infrared, electrical field, capacitance, ultrasonic, vision, and others. All the candidate sensors above will be thoroughly reviewed before two or three are chosen for the initial testing on the experimental platform.

Synergy and Integration

Even though the main scope of the project is to develop a prototype system for experimental evaluation, the research and development process can benefit from a direct linkage to other associated projects and the evolving perspectives and approaches being developed by the safety community, such as:

• Ongoing research and developments, sponsored by Federal Transit Administration, in the areas of Forward and Side Collision Warning Systems and the follow-up Integrated CWS.
• Current Intersection Decision Support (IDS) studies and the State-Map concepts
• Instrumented Intelligence Intersection at Richmond Field Station.
• Related pedestrian studies at Traffic Safety Center at UC Berkeley
• Potential integration into Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) Initiative pursued by a collaboration of government and industrial partners.
• Cooperative vehicle- and infrastructure-based integration with wireless assistance, such as DSRC.