New warning system could improve work-zone safety

In a bid to improve work-zone safety, researchers from the University of Minnesota have developed the intelligent drum line (IDL) system prototype. The portable, dynamic system provides visual and auditory warnings to drivers who may have ignored or missed previous warning devices and pose a danger to the work-zone crew.
October 18, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
In a bid to improve work-zone safety, researchers from the 584 University of Minnesota have developed the intelligent drum line (IDL) system prototype. The portable, dynamic system provides visual and auditory warnings to drivers who may have ignored or missed previous warning devices and pose a danger to the work-zone crew.

The IDL system consists of two work-zone drums that detect vehicles travelling at unsafe speeds as they approach the work zone. Each drum includes a visual and auditory warning system: emergency flasher units mounted on the outside of the drum and a powerful air horn mounted inside that projects toward the roadway.

The first drum measures the speed and location of approaching vehicles. If the speed is higher than the safe threshold, the system activates the visual warning in both drums. When the vehicle is about one second away from the first drum, the auditory warning is activated. As soon as the vehicle passes, the auditory warning is stopped and the visual warning is deactivated. The auditory warning process is then repeated for the second drum.

Initial tests indicate that the audible and visual warnings successfully attracted the attention of drivers, although drivers were aware of the system in advance.  Further tests under real conditions are planned.
Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • In-vehicle automation of safety compliance and other traffic violations
    January 24, 2012
    David Crawford explores new initiatives in enforcement. Achieving the EU’s new road safety target of reducing road traffic deaths by 50 per cent by 2020 depends on removing legal and institutional barriers to the deployment of new enforcement technologies, stresses Jan Malenstein. The senior ITS Adviser to Dutch National Police Agency the KLPD, and a European-level spokesperson on road and traffic safety, points to the importance of, among other requirements, an effective EUwide type approval process for fr
    Read More
  • ITS World Congress debates perceptions of enforcement
    December 4, 2012
    The technical programme of this year’s ITS World Congress in Vienna includes a special session on the image of enforcement. ITS International examines the scale of the problem and what can be done about it. Debate on the merits and difficulties of enforcing speed limits appears centred on a conflict of principles. Put very simply, local communities, people living close to busy or hazardous roads, want to see traffic speeds calmed. Drivers on those roads, on the whole, want their principle of freedom to be m
    Read More
  • Smartphones smooth the journey for visually impaired
    May 13, 2016
    Moves to make life easier and safer for vulnerable and impaired road users are gaining strength on both sides of the Atlantic. A recent webcast by the US Roadway Safety Institute, based at the University of Minnesota, showcased work in progress on a positioning and mapping methodology using Bluetooth and smartphone technologies to support situation awareness and wayfinding for the visually impaired.
    Read More
  • USDoT pilots show win-win potential for connected vehicles
    December 19, 2017
    Pete Goldin discovers the state of play with connected vehicles trials in the US and the impact of Hurricane Irma on Tampa’s pilot. The US Department of Transportation’s (USDoT’s) connected vehicle (CV) pilot sites have moved into phase 2 of the deployment programme– design, build, test and, maybe most importantly, collaborate.
    Read More

Highlighted Content