In an effort to make roads accident-free and reduce infrastructure repair costs, a European Union-funded project will use RFID, motion sensors and other technologies to track vehicles and improve driver behavior.
Researchers in Finland, France and Germany are collaborating on the automated traffic surveillance system, called ASSET-Road (Advanced Safety and Driver Support for Essential Road Transport), which has a budget of €8.1 million.
The goal is to link road traffic and safety information from all essential systems. The Finnish are developing a mobile system that uses machine vision technology to capture images and data, such as a vehicle’s speed and weight. French researchers are creating a system to improve driver awareness by communicating information, such as dangerous road conditions or excessive speed, to the driver. And German researchers are developing a system that tracks RFID-enabled license plates to capture how fast a vehicle is traveling and to whom it’s registered.
The researchers will begin testing their systems in the fall. Ultimately, they hope the various technologies can be combined and used commercially by government agencies and others to improve road safety.
