Development of vehicular-collision avoidance support system by inter-vehicle communications - VCASS

In order to achieve a safe automotive society, it is necessary to develop an on-board intelligent system with inter-vehicle communications (IVC). We want to avoid vehicle collisions under most situations, such as intersections, highways, and blind corners, by using IVC technology through wireless ad hoc networks. The paper describes a vehicular collision avoidance support system (VCASS), and shows its performance by various experiments with two real vehicles. We have installed personal computers, telecommunication equipment, and GPS in the vehicles. A vehicle exchanges location information and velocity vectors with the other by a UDP broadcast, and calculates the relative position/speed. Vehicles warn the drivers of the possibility of collision. We verify the validity and effectiveness of VCASS by experiments.