Program Team

Federal Transit Adminstration (FTA)
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT)
San Mateo County Transit (SamTrans)
Port Authority Transit (PAT)
California PATH
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Robotics Institute, Driving Research Center
Gillig Bus Company
Bay Area Advisory Committee
Collision Avoidance Systems Inc.
Foster Miller Engineering

Background

This document describes a program to shorten the commercialization cycle of collision warning systems for transit buses. There are several issues that need to be addressed before full commercialization of these systems can become a reality. There is very little operational test data that documents use of these systems in the transit environment. The technologies need to be matured for their use in this arena. Lastly, the interface to the transit operator is crucial to the success of these systems, and there has not been sufficient work in this area to be able to specify this interface. The time to commercial deployment can be greatly reduced by focusing on these issues. This proposal puts forth four objectives to make strides in each of these areas. In order to meet these objectives, we have gathered a diverse group of participants with different technical thrusts and multiple contractual arrangements within the transit arena. This document provides the background of the overall program including the objectives, the complete team and its management structure, the contractual relationships, the funding model, approach to meeting each objective and team members involved, program list of deliverables, costing details, and the program schedule. The document further focuses on the statement of work to be conducted by the California participants and the interaction between California participants and the other partners.

Problem Statement

Commercial warning systems for buses are still in their infancy. Each of the projects mentioned above contribute to being able to deploy commercial warning systems, but work needs to be done to advance the both the capabilities and deployability of these systems. There are issues in integrating these various systems into a coherent whole that will reduce the frequency and severity of collisions. Significant questions also exist as to how best to communicate this information to the transit operator.

Program Objectives

This program will focus its objectives on advancing the state of deployable technology needed for transit bus collision warning systems in an urban/suburban environment. Much of the work involving collision warning systems for transit buses has been done by separating the problem into smaller pieces. An early program concentrated on testing a rear impact warning system for trailing vehicles. There is research work already underway that is looking at advanced technologies for frontal and side collisions separately. Human Factors engineering is being done to investigate how warning systems should be displayed to transit operators. Currently 100 buses are outfitted with side looking commercial warning systems and are undergoing field operational tests. Integration of multiple collision warning systems will require a partnership approach to accomplish to achieve a system that can be deployed in the commercial sector. This program will achieve this by conducting simulations on four versions of the HMI prototype, enhancing the currently installed commercial system, advancing the state of technologies for collision warning and integrating an advanced collision warning system on two buses for validation testing. Specifically stated, the objectives for this joint program are:

1. Conduct limited operational testing and evaluation of enhanced commercial systems in transit use - The capability of five buses equipped with the commercial side collision warning system will be updated to second generation commercial technology and the coverage area increased to cover the left and right front comers of a transit bus.
2. Integrate the advanced side collision warning and frontal collision warning systems into a unified whole with one transit operator interface - This will lead to a unified collision warning system specification and two prototypes for limited operational testing.
   1. Advance the development of frontal and side collision warning technologies for transit buses
   2. Develop a warning information synthesizer and an integrated HMI that can effectively display warnings from both frontal and side collision warning system, signaling the driver in a manner that is effective in avoiding potential accidents.
   3. Develop prototype frontal and side collision warning systems.
   4. Evaluate the performance of an integrated forward and lane change collision warning prototype. This evaluation will be based on testing in an operational environment including sensors, processing algorithms, and driver vehicle interfaces.
3. Specify and build a usable Human Machine Interface (HMI) prototype - This is crucial to the success of any warning system. Specifications will be based on:
   1. Operational tests of a commercial interface
   2. Simulation testing involving experienced transit operators and various HMI prototypes
   3. Design guidelines generated by human factors research and testing
   4. Advanced HMI Prototype for integrated advanced collision warning system
4. Work with OEM manufacturers to integrate a complete collision warning system - PAT will facilitate meetings with OEM Bus suppliers and CAS to develop specifications for OEM integration
5. Reduce the development risks and accelerate the deployment of CWS by Integrating marketing, manufacturing, and commercialization considerations into the CWS development process - Caltrans will support two efforts:
   1. Work with Samtrans, the FCWS Bay Area Advisory Council, Gillig, and a supplier to develop an understanding of the market constraints that will lead to wide spread deployment of CWS.
   2. Bring a supplier/manufacture on board as a consultant to begin early integration of production and manufacturing perspectives into the design and development process and begin the transfer of technology to industry.
6. Develop and test "commercial" CWS - work with a manufacturer to develop a "commercial" bus CWS. Produce and install a number of systems(10+) and perform field operational test(s) and evaluation