Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SAFE STRIP (Safe and green Sensor Technologies for self-explaining and forgiving Road Interactive aPplications)
Reporting period: 2018-11-01 to 2020-08-31
SAFE STRIP aims to introduce a disruptive technology that will achieve to embed C-ITS applications in existing road infrastructure, including novel I2V and V2I, as well as VMS/VSL functions into low-cost, integrated strips markers on the road; to make roads self-explanatory and forgiving for all road users (trucks, cars and vulnerable road users, such as PTWs riders) and all vehicle generations (non-equipped, C-ITS equipped, autonomous), with reduced maintenance cost, full recyclability and added value services, as well as supporting real-time predictive road maintenance functions. The vast potential of SAFE STRIP will be demonstrated through applications for: 1) Cooperative safety functions for enhanced ADAS/ARAS equipped and non-equipped vehicles, 2) Road wear level and predictive road maintenance, 3) Road work zones and railway crossings warnings, 4) Merging/intersection support, 5) Personalised VMS’/VDS’ and Traffic Centre Information, 6) Dynamic trajectory estimation and interface to automated vehicles, whereas it will open a new channel to a vast array of 7) Supportive added value services (such as Virtual Toll Collection and Parking booking and charging). It ha been evaluated in a test bed in Spain and in France and in real life conditions in Greek and Italian highways, with 4 car and 3 PTW project demonstrators as well as with a serious of other external to the project demonstrators. This very challenging task is undertaken by a muldisciplinary and complementary Consortium of 18 Partners from 6 countries, with a good representation of all stakeholders.
During the second reporting period, covering M19-M40 of the project (November 2018 – August 2020), SAFE STRIP concluded its activities. After a detailed and often challenging technical validation and iterative optimisation process, it has achieved to reach a truly novel and functional integrated solution that is infrastructure based and accommodates C-ITS safety and comfort applications for drivers and riders, supporting also road predictive maintenance for operators. Detailed step by step information on how this point was reached is provided in the project final documentation. Also, installation and maintenance guidelines are also provided. All applications selected to serve as a proof of concept have been finalized and interfaced through mobile applications in Android and iOS upon a common parametric HMI. The solution and the applications have been tested in 2 motorways – A22 in Italy and ATTD in Greece – and in CIDAUT closed test tracks with 6 project demonstrators and a series of other vehicles. The experimental plans applied have been very much detailed, whilst logging mechanisms have been established from the beginning for both subjective and performance data collection. Finally, a full impact assessment against safety, mobility, traffic efficiency, cost-efficiency, etc. has been accommodated. SAFE STRIP has been proved to be a system that can be beneficial for road safety and at the same time cost-effective for the operators. It only needs to undergo a commercialization phase that will allow it to adhere with all international standards, whereas, already, the exploitation potential is considerable. There are 20 exploitation products identified in SAFE STRIP, for each of which detailed exploitation plans have included in this issue. The tested integrated solution in various traffic environments (highway, rural, urban, work zones, parking) has resulted in TRL6 – TRL7, whereas about half of the exploitable products will be in the market between 1 and 2 years from the project conclusion. Finally, SAFE STRIP key exploitation will lie in the commercial exploitation by the industrial Partners and the SMEs, spin-offs created by the research institutes, but, also through internal exploitation and further research initiatives, which has already been started. The IPR Registry will serve as a safety belt for the exploitation rights of the Consortium. Also, SAFE STRIP is expected to open-up a new field in the penetration of C-ITS and automation technologies for road safety, constituting the basis for further research and development. During its life, SAFE STRIP has gained big recognisability. The project website has been regularly updated with content (http://safestrip.eu/). Social media accounts were developed as follows: https://twitter.com/SafeStripProj; https://www.facebook.com/safestrip/; https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8630552. A project logo, flyer and posters and a roll-up (with regular updates) were developed and disseminated. Give-aways and project video were also produced to enable attractiveness and wider dissemination. SAFE STRIP has had 38 publications in journals, conference proceedings and magazine articles. SAFE STRIP held its first Pan-European workshop on 27 September 2017 in Thessaloniki with 40 participants, hosted by CERTH/HIT. The 1st clustering meeting has been organised by SAFE STRIP on the 20th of February 2018, in ERTICO premises with the participation of SAFER LC and SAFE-10-T participated. The second clustering meeting was held on 31 January 2019 at CERTH premises in Thessaloniki. Finally, SAFE STRIP’s final event was successfully organised both online and on-site in Athens. It gathered 17 on-site participants, who had the opportunity to experience SAFE STRIP’s technology, and 89 virtual attendees. In addition, SAFE STRIP participated at 31 events around Europe and overseas. In the last semester, a 4 month extension has been given to the project to deal with the COVID-19 challenges.
SAFE STRIP aims at boosting cooperative system applications in the road environment by a revolutionary idea: offer their functionality through low-cost micro/nano sensor communities embedded in road elements (in road pavement tapes), thus not requiring costly sensors or infrastructural elements. The vast potential of SAFE STRIP has been demonstrated for equipped and non-equipped vehicles through safety and comfort C-ITS applications for drivers/riders and infrastructure operators. SAFE STRIP introduces innovation on all layers as follows: 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; Applications - C-ITS for ALL functionalities at low cost and with high reliability & extendability; 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. SAFE STRIP impacts are expected on scientific field, road safety, mobility and traffic efficiency, cost-effectiveness and societal changes. All impacts and evaluation results are reported in details in the public D6.3: Pilot results consolidation & Impact analysis.