Range sensor evaluation for use in cooperative intersection collision avoidance systems

The Intelligent Transportation Institute at the University of Minnesota is developing a Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System - Stop Sign Assist (CICAS-SSA) for rural intersections as an alternative to signalized intersections. When deployed, the system will provide a driver stopped at a thru-stop intersection information about the available gaps in the mainline road traffic stream. The system uses surveillance sensors alongside the major road to determine the state1 of the intersection; this state information is used to determine whether the gaps that exist are unsafe, thereby triggering a warning to a driver not to initiate the desired maneuver. The system is capable of sending intersection state information to the vehicle (I2V) so that gap information can be displayed in the vehicle. Low cost automotive radar/laser sensors form the basis of the surveillance system. Described herein is a performance evaluation of a Delphi ESR radar sensor (ESR), an Ibeo Lux laser sensor (LUX), and a Smartmicro Umrr9 radar sensor (UMRR9). Each sensor was mounted adjacent to the shoulder on US 52 while a probe vehicle equipped with dual frequency, carrier phase DGPS was driven past. The accuracy of the position and speed measurements for each sensor were determined by comparison with the DGPS position and speed measured at the probe vehicle. An analysis was conducted to determine which sensor provided the best performance:cost ratio when used as a CICAS-SSA mainline sensor.