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Smart Pedestrian Crosswalk for Increased Traffic Safety at Uncontrolled Crossings

Project description

Algorithms and sensors keep pedestrians safe

While road safety in the EU has improved greatly in recent decades (and EU roads are the safest in the world), the number of deaths and injuries is still far too high. Accidents involving vulnerable road users remain a very significant issue for road safety. The EU-funded SPECK project will pave the way for smart pedestrian crosswalks. It will create a sort of cyber dialogue between the vehicle and its surroundings to improve communication between road users through the use of cooperative intelligent transport systems. More specifically, an intelligent roadside unit utilises narrow artificial intelligence algorithms coupled with sensor fusion techniques to predict and avoid situation-based traffic conflicts.

Objective

Traffic accidents involving Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) remain one of the major causes of serious road traffic injuries and deaths worldwide and cost the EU an estimated €120 billion annually. Statistics show that more than one-third of VRU involved accidents take place on uncontrolled (zebra) crossings. A zebra crossing is a type of crossing where there is nothing to tell drivers when to stop and VRUs when to go. One of the potential measures to minimise such accidents is to improve communication between road users through the use of cooperative intelligent transport systems. These technologies can be integrated within infrastructures, and within the vehicles themselves, to create a sort of cyber-dialogue (V2X) between the driving machine and its surroundings. By equipping roadside infrastructure with communication devices and sensors, they can be used to monitor and predict traffic dynamics as well as warn road users when their trajectories are conflicting. However, the real-life technical requirements for such devices have remained more than challenging. Bercman has cracked this problem and developed an intelligent roadside unit which utilises narrow artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms coupled with sensor fusion techniques to predict and avoid situation-based traffic conflicts. It can increase VRU safety near uncontrolled crossings by employing warning signals and active safety measures to prevent accidents from ever happening. Our target group includes urban municipalities with more than 50 000 residents looking to modernise their infrastructure and gain smart city status. We address the global intelligent transport system market, estimated to reach over €46 billion by 2025. By scaling up rapidly, our objective is to reach €39 million in sales revenues by 2025. During the Phase-1 study, Bercman will conduct a comprehensive feasibility study that includes the commercialisation aspect of the innovation, and update its business plan accordingly.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

BERCMAN TECHNOLOGIES
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
VAIKE-TURU TN 5-63
51004 TARTU
Estonia

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Eesti Eesti Lõuna-Eesti
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
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