Road safety and Aboriginal people. This study will involve an in-depth examination of factors underlying the high involvement in road crashes by Aboriginal people in Australia. Using mixed methods in six communities across NSW and South Australia it will inform development of new programs aimed at closing the gap in this important area.
An innovative theory driven approach to enhancing situation awareness among road users in Australia. This project will develop, via on-road studies exploring road user behaviour, a first of its kind systems theoretic model of situation awareness (SA) for road transport. The model will then be used to inform the development of roadway design solutions to enhance road user SA, which will be tested through advanced simulation.
Motorcycle protective clothing, crash protection, thermal strain and rider performance. Using a mix of novel studies this project will for the first time provide: basic knowledge of the required performance of protective clothing to prevent injury; the best ways to assess performance; and, resolution around potential negative effects of thermal strain on rider performance. This is is the first study to examine motorcycle protective clothing from a whole-system perspective. In Australia, motorcyc ....Motorcycle protective clothing, crash protection, thermal strain and rider performance. Using a mix of novel studies this project will for the first time provide: basic knowledge of the required performance of protective clothing to prevent injury; the best ways to assess performance; and, resolution around potential negative effects of thermal strain on rider performance. This is is the first study to examine motorcycle protective clothing from a whole-system perspective. In Australia, motorcyclists are over-represented in casualty rates and currently cost the Australian community more than two billion Australian dollars per year. This work will provide knowledge on which public policy and performance assessment protocols can be developed, and ultimately will lead to reduced societal costs from motorcycle crashes.Read moreRead less
Cognitive Radars for Automobiles. Automobile radar systems are an important technology for improving road safety by providing advanced driver warnings in vehicles. Though such devices currently exist in practice there is no guarantee that they will operate successfully when deployed on a mass scale in every vehicle given the limited allocated frequency spectrum. The spectral interference due to radar access becomes a major issue when several radars operate in a confined bandwidth simultaneously, ....Cognitive Radars for Automobiles. Automobile radar systems are an important technology for improving road safety by providing advanced driver warnings in vehicles. Though such devices currently exist in practice there is no guarantee that they will operate successfully when deployed on a mass scale in every vehicle given the limited allocated frequency spectrum. The spectral interference due to radar access becomes a major issue when several radars operate in a confined bandwidth simultaneously, potentially leading to a complete system failure during mass deployment. This project will conduct fundamental research intended to enable dynamic spectrum accessing in automobile radars and redesign the radar systems in the form of sequence and waveform designs to suit requirements.Read moreRead less
An innovative mechanism for optimising freeway traffic efficiency, safety, and sustainability via variable speed limit control. Congestion, safety, and emissions are three major traffic problems threatening the Australian economy. This project aims to develop a novel approach to collectively handle these problems for freeway traffic using variable speed limits (VSL). The project tasks address modelling, VSL controller design and automatic fine tuning of VSL controllers.