Intelligent Road Markings
SWARCO is a member of the SAFE STRIP Consortium. SAFE STRIP stands for SAFE and green Sensor Technologies for self-explaining and forgiving Road Interactive aPplications. SAFE STRIP is an EU-funded project.
The goal is to develop intelligent cost-effective road markings that support connected and autonomous driving by providing I2V / V2I (Infrastructure-to-Vehicle communication, and vice versa) and VMS / VSL communication.
SAFE STRIP's Objectives
Objective 1
To develop a novel micro/nano sensorial system – called SAFE STRIP – integrated in road pavement tapes/ markers; that will provide advanced safety functions to all road users at a fraction of the cost of current I2V/V2I nodes and roadside equipment (VMS, VDS, etc.).
Objective 2
To support predictive infrastructure maintenance, through dynamic road embedded sensors input.
Objective 3
To make road infrastructure (mainly for highways and interurban roads but also for city rings and selected rural roads) self-explanatory (through personalised info in own language and preferred format provided by the system to each driver/rider) and forgiving (through key I2V/V2I info provided to the cooperative system of the vehicle; such as dynamic speed limit and friction coefficient factor); for all vehicle types.
Objective 4
To extend this notion to parking depots, key intermodal nodes, such as railway crossings, harbour loading/uploading areas and logistic depots and – above all – work zone areas.
Objective 5
To reduce the infrastructure operational (including VMS/VSL info and toll collection functions), installation and maintenance costs by orders of magnitude, make it nearly energy autonomous and its modules fully recyclable.
Objective 6
To provide key info to C-ITS equipped and autonomous vehicles about road, weather and traffic conditions ahead, to support dynamic trajectory estimation and optimisation.
Objective 7
To support a wide range of added value services (through “pushed” info to the driver/rider) and facilitate the SAFE STRIP rapid market deployment and sustainability through efficient business models.
Objective 8
To evaluate the system in a controlled environment (test bed in Spain, in France and 2 closed test tracks in Italy) and real life conditions in 2 sites (highways in Greece and Italy) with 4 car and 3 PTW demonstrators, validate its performance, evaluate user interface and acceptance aspects and, finally, assess its impacts to safety, mobility, the environment and European industrial competitiveness.
Major Components
Sensors
Intelligent infrastructure strips with networking capabilities, operating with minimum maintenance in the harsh all weather conditions of a real road environment with partial energy autonomy.
Application
C-ITS for ALL functionalities at low cost and with high reliability & extendibility.
Operations
More pragmatic approach to the design of emerging and future communication technologies, mainly those destined for the road/vehicle interaction that may be deemed ubiquitous.