Emerging technologies for vehicle-infrastructure cooperation to support emergency transportation operations

Abstract

Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Transportation with participation by automobile manufacturers and other organizations. VII seeks to create a network of communications and shared applications within the U.S. among all vehicles and countless roadside and infrastructure-based elements. This would enable or improve vehicle safety applications, transportation management functions, and other public- and private-sector applications, such as real-time traffic information. An area that highlights the potential of VII is emergency transportation operations, which are activities by public agencies to manage the movement of vehicles in response to everyday accidents and emergency needs, as well as in response to extraordinary events such as large-scale natural disasters or man-made catastrophes. This paper provides a framework for considering potential uses of the VII network. Three basic types of communication are described: vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and infrastructure-to-vehicle. For emergency transportation operations, an additional distinction between emergency vehicles and private vehicles is added. With this in mind, potential applications can be classified according to the communication paths. A set of VII applications is described in the context of emergency transportation operations. The challenges of deploying VII and creating applications for emergency transportation applications are considered. Gaps in technology and knowledge are identified, with suggestions for research to close the gaps. Gaps considered include technology gaps, techno-social issues, algorithmic and modeling gaps, and human-machine interface gaps. By providing a conceptual framework for the possible functions that VII can enable, and by examining key functions and their challenges, this paper serves to both highlight the potential of VII and address the challenges of bringing VII to full deployment.