Motorists driving open platform road safety satellite communication
In recent years, significant progress has been made towards developing user-centred autonomous driver-assistance technologies, in-vehicle platforms & applications and intelligent road infrastructures. However, many of these advances have yet to be linked together in one holistic 'package'. With EU funding, the 'Satellite Application For Emergency handling, Traffic alerts, Road safety and Incident Prevention' SAFETRIP project strove to develop an integrated, satellite enabled ITS open platform with the ability to support a wide range of safety, navigation and infotainment applications for the road market. Some demonstrator applications developed in the project include real-time traffic information and warnings aggregated from other vehicles, an enhanced emergency call system and real-time tracking of vulnerable passenger and goods transport vehicles. The integrated system combines two major strands of satellite technologies: robust satellite positioning (using GPS, EGNOS and GALILEO) and data communication via satellite in S-band frequency (using the satellite Eutelsat 10A). Due to the innovative use of the S-band, a small form factor antenna was required to communicate with satellites, which is a major step for the acceptance of such technology paving the way for future commercialisation. The in-vehicle platform and communication module is housed in an on-board unit known as the GreenBox. With 20 partners from 7 European countries, from the outset SafeTRIP was designed to deliver an open ITS platform to enable third parties to develop applications that will enrich the system and address the demands of road users. The SafeTRIP platform can also host entertainment services, such as digital radio, mobile TV and video on demand, which can help make journeys less stressful by entertaining the passengers and, hence, safer. By the time SafeTRIP concluded its activities in the spring of 2013 it had successfully trialled and demonstrated the system integrated with both new innovative and existing applications. The project also found that there is a lot of unexploited potential for satellite communication enabled automotive telematics market and has identified promising avenues for future development. Safetrip video
