Advanced Vehicle Control Systems (AVCS) for Maintenance Vehicle Applications

摘要

It is widely believed that barriers to an automated highway system (AHS)211u001edeployment are due more to institutional, economic, and legal issues than 211u001etechnology limitations. In order to sustain and accelerate the AHS deployment 211u001eprocess, it is desirable to demonstrate the benefits of advanced vehicle control 211u001esystems (AVCS) as soon as possible. An ideal candidate application for early 211u001edeployment should include the following features: a controlled/structured vehicle 211u001eoperating environment, a user group willing to experiment with developmental 211u001esystems, and substantial user benefits from automation. Several particularly 211u001esuitable application areas which meet some or all of those criteria involve the 211u001eoperations of on and off-highway maintenance vehicles. The high cost of 211u001emaintenance operations, as reflected in labor costs, incident-related injury and 211u001edamage, and negative traffic impacts could be significantly mitigated through the 211u001euse of vehicle control systems. This need for improvement, coupled with the 211u001ewillingness of many highway departments to test prototype hardware, provides an 211u001eexcellent opportunity for field testing AVCS. In terms of off-highway 211u001eapplications, an area of opportunity also exists for applying AVCS to airport 211u001eground vehicle operations. Within the context of highway maintenance operations, 211u001ethis study explores opportunities for AVCS-based snow removal and work zone 211u001efollowing vehicles. A description of these operations, and their particular 211u001esuitability for the application of AVCS is presented. For airport operations, the 211u001efeasibility of AVCS-assisted snow removal and baggage movement is considered. 211u001ePrevious and on-going work related to vehicle automation for these operations is 211u001eintroduced, along with recommendations for the future, based on an assessment of 211u001etechnical feasibility of AVCS and the attitudes of the highway and airport 211u001emaintenance communities towards this technology.