Environment

California Trains Connected

Kanafani, Adib
Benouar, Hamed
Chiou, Bensen
Ygnace, Jean-Luc
Yamada, Kazuhiro
Dankberg, Adam
2006

This project is to assist the Capitol Corridor Joint Power Authority (CCIPA) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) assemble a decision framework for selecting wireless Internet access on behalf of customers riding the three California State sponsored Intercity Rail Services. To accomplish this objective, we researched the state of worldwide deployment of service based on the wireless technologies, such as wireless fidelity (WiFi) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX), conducted a survey of the WiFi service at San Francisco Airport, and examined the...

PLANiTS: A User's Guide for the Prototype

Cayford, Randall
Khattak, Asad
Kanafani, Adib
1995

This paper presents a simple prototype to demonstrate the key functions of PLANiTS (Planning and Analysis for Integration for Intelligent Transportation Systems). The prototype has a planning vector that allows users to enter and edit transportation actions, performance measures and environmental descriptors. This guide demonstrates how users specify each of these elements in terms of temporal, spatial and user dimensions and analyze the planning vector with models and case-based reasoning. During the process of planning vector specification and analysis, users at different locations can...

Aggregation of Direct and Indirect Positioning Sensors for Vehicle Guidance

Agogino, Alice
Chao, Susan
Wang, Jiangxin
Deng, Xinyan
2000

Advanced Vehicle Control Systems (AVCS) require large numbers of sensors for different levels within the control hierarchy. Whereas all sensors contain uncertainty to some degree, different sensors are particularly useful for specific environmental conditions. Therefore, sensor redundancy is essential to achieving high sensor data fidelity for use in real-world, non-ideal, unpredictable environments. In this work, a positioning sensor system, which includes Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, a radar sensor, and a linear transducer is investigated. Positioning sensors provide...

ITS and the Environment: Issues and Recommendations for its Deployment in California

Horan, T. A.
Hempel, L. C.
Jordan, D. R.
Alm, E. A.
1996

This study culminates a two year, multi-faceted inquiry into the environmental issues associated with Intelligent Transportation Systems ( ITS). In addition to reviewing the literature on ITS-related environmental issues, the report presents results from three focus groups that explored the attitudes of California environmental stakeholders about ITS. The report also addresses public acceptance issues related to ITS, focusing on public acceptance of Advanced Traveler Information Services (ATIS), congestion pricing, and telecommuting. The report concludes with summary results and...

Towards a Fault Tolerant AHS Design Part I: Extended Architecture

Lygeros, J.
Godbole, D. N.
Broucke, M.
1996

In this study, the authors propose a hierarchical control architecture for dealing with faults and adverse environmental conditions on an Automated Highway System (AHS). The faults are classified according to the capabilities remaining on the vehicle or roadside after the fault has occurred. Information about these capabilities is used by supervisors in each of the layers to select appropriate control strategies. The extended control strategies that are needed by these supervisors in each layer of the hierarchy are outlined. A companion paper, abstracted in PATH Database record no. 9597,...

Analyses of the Response of Pavements Containing Ceramic Plugs for Vehicle Guidance

Monismith, Carl L.
2004

In studies undertaken by staff of the PATH Program concerned with automatic vehicle control (AVC) ceramic sensors (magnets) have been placed at or near the surface of both asphalt concrete (AC) and portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements. Thus far sensors have been installed at three locations: 1) AC pavement at the Richmond Field Station (RFS); 2) AC and PCC pavement on Interstate 15 in San Diego, CA; and 3) AC and PCC pavement on Interstate 80 near Donner Summit, CA. The installations at Donner Summit have been used for the guidance of snow plows during the winter months. With increased...

Evaluation of an Animal Warning System Effectiveness

Sharafsaleh, Mohammad (Ashkan)
Huijser, Marcel, PhD
Kuhn, Tom
Spring, John
Felder, Jonathan
2010

The problem of vehicle/animal crashes is being addressed in this research. There have been a few new technologies that claim to accurately detect the large animals that cross our roadways. Each one has its own strengths and shortcomings. A close attention must be given to the selected site and the technology deployed based on its weather, vegetation, topography, and local animal types and sizes. In this project, we have reviewed a number of animal detection systems and selected one system with the most potential to serve the characteristics of the selected site and the local Deer. We did a...

Adaptive Control for MEMS Gyroscopes

Park, Sungsu
Horowitz, Roberto
Tan, Chin-woo
2002

This report presents a new adaptive operation strategy for MEMS z-axis gyroscopes. Specifically, a unified methodology is proposed for designing and analyzing the performance of a control algorithm that can identify and, in an adaptive fashion, compensate for most fabrication defects and perturbations affecting the behavior of a MEMS z-axis gyroscope. Dynamic analysis of typical MEMS gyroscopes shows that fabrication imperfections are a major factor limiting the performance of the gyroscope. However, the motion of a conventional mode-matched z-axis gyroscope does not have sufficient...

The Shift Programming Language and Run-time System for Dynamic Networks of Hybrid Automata

Deshpande, Akash
Gollu, Aleks
Semenzato, Luigi
1997

This report presents SHIFT, a programming language for describing dynamic networks of hybrid automata. The SHIFT model offers the proper level of abstraction for describing complex applications such as automated highway systems, etc. The report first describes a simplified version of the SHIFT model. The models of a type, a component and the world are discussed, including the formal semantics of the model. This is followed by a description of the main features of the SHIFT language, including states, inputs, outputs, differential equations and algebraic definitions, discrete states and...

Vehicle to Roadside Communications Study

Polydoros, Andreas
Dessouky, Khaled
Pereira, Jorge M. N.
Sun, Chung-ming
Lee, Kuo-chun
Papavassiliou, Thomas D.
Li, Victor O. K.
1993

The objective of this study is to address the communication system design issues of Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems (IVHS). The focus of Phase I of this research is the design for California Advanced Driver Information Systems (CADIS). The emphasis is on the architecture and topology aspects of the physical link and access layers connecting the moving layers with the fixed infrastructure. The work is divided into the following categories: Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI), IVHS communications survey and functional requirements, modeling of IVHS fading channels, multiple-access...