ITS ACTIVITIES OF JAPANESE MITI: AVCS TECHNOLOGIES IN FOCUS

This paper introduces intelligent transportation systems (ITS) history and current activities in Japanese MITI, Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MEL), a research institute belonging to MITI, and the Association of Electronic Technology for Automobile Driving and Traffic (JSK), a foundation related to MITI established in 1979. JSK has a long history of ITS research covering automatic vehicle control systems (AVCS) since the 1960s and advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) since the 1970s and 80s. The activities in the ITS field place emphasis on research and development rather than deployment. MITI is also in charge of standardization including International Standards Organization (ISO)/TC204. ITS activities began with automatic driving in the early 1960s. In the 1970s, MITI and MEL conducted two projects; the Comprehensive Automobile Traffic Control System (CATCS) and a vision-guided intelligent vehicle. In the 1980s, JSK conducted ATIS-related projects including a traveler information system combining a road-vehicle communication system and a cable television network in addition to a traveling time measurement system. MITI supervised research and development of an autonomous intelligent vehicle, the personal vehicle system (PVS). MITI conducted studies on the Super Smart Vehicle System (SSVS) from 1990 to 1992, which envision AVCS-related systems in 20 to 30 years that aim at compatibility of safety and efficiency of automobile driving and road traffic taking account of the aging society and environmental protection. The recent activities in MITI focus on AVCS, especially on vehicle-oriented AVCS, including automated highway systems and inter-vehicle communications. MEL is conducting fundamental research on image processing and driving control algorithms for AVCS, and JSK has a series of experiments on cooperative driving with inter-vehicle communication. In addition, JSK is conducting research on the effect of ITS technologies on energy conservation.