Deer Deter - Smart Cooperative Infrastructure Sensors Prevent Wildlife Accidents

IPv6 connectivity of vehicles and infrastructure is seen as one of the top requirements for the future traffic safety and management. Wildlife is a huge and widely underestimated challenge to traffic safety. Every year there are annually 300,000 reported wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) in the USA. According the “Wildlife Vehicle Collision Reduction Study - Report to Congress” (FHA, August 2007), the annual damage was estimated to be USD 8.4 billion. To prevent wildlife related accidents, todays measures are either quite expensive (like fencing) or not efficient enough. This new approach uses a cooperative sensor/actor network. The devices are activated either by the electronic vehicles detectors or by ETSI-CAM broadcast from approaching cars. The activated network emits opto-acoustic alerts to the wildlife - causing it to leave the road timely - and ETSI-DENM warnings to the oncoming vehicle. The Joint FP7-ITSSv6 and FOTsis demonstration utilizes the capabilities of the ‘Virtual Roadfence’ and connects the cooperative roadside sensor/actor network with the FOTsis service centre. It points the way towards a reliable, cost efficient and manageable WVC avoidance system for road operators. This system is aligned with the ITS Action Plan of the European Commission and executes the requirements for future road transport.