Unifying Traffic Modelling and Safety Management for Safer and Faster Roads. This project aims to balance road safety and efficiency as conflicting goals of transport systems mixed with connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). This project is expected to generate fundamental knowledge on operational algorithms and analytics for CAVs and develop innovative tools for operating them. Expected outcomes include ground-breaking models capable of the co-estimation of efficiency and safety impacts of CA ....Unifying Traffic Modelling and Safety Management for Safer and Faster Roads. This project aims to balance road safety and efficiency as conflicting goals of transport systems mixed with connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). This project is expected to generate fundamental knowledge on operational algorithms and analytics for CAVs and develop innovative tools for operating them. Expected outcomes include ground-breaking models capable of the co-estimation of efficiency and safety impacts of CAVs, and control strategies to safely and efficiently integrate CAVs into existing transport systems. This should provide significant safety and efficiency benefits that currently cost about 1160 lives and 1.25 billion hours of congestion per year, and make Australia better prepared for the connected and automated vehicle era.Read moreRead less
Reducing aggression on our roads: testing a comprehensive model of aggressive driving. This project aims to increase our understanding of driver aggression, its causes and how it can be prevented. This will inform development of more effective educational and enforcement measures to reduce driver aggression and resultant road crashes, which have significant social and economic impacts on the Australian community.
Electromagnetically Interconnected Suspension for Electrified Vehicles . This project aims to develop an innovative, electromagnetically interconnected suspension system to enhance vehicle ride comfort, stability and handling dynamics, and thus safety of electrified vehicles. Specifically, the project integrates a set of novel electromagnetic shock absorbers to form an effective electrical network so as to realise an electromagnetically interconnected suspension system. Advanced integrated con ....Electromagnetically Interconnected Suspension for Electrified Vehicles . This project aims to develop an innovative, electromagnetically interconnected suspension system to enhance vehicle ride comfort, stability and handling dynamics, and thus safety of electrified vehicles. Specifically, the project integrates a set of novel electromagnetic shock absorbers to form an effective electrical network so as to realise an electromagnetically interconnected suspension system. Advanced integrated control techniques can then be applied to improve vehicle performance and dynamics in three planes. The project will assist the rapid development of transportation electrification. The outcomes from this project will lead to tangible improvements in vehicle comfort and safety.Read moreRead less
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
Trustworthy positioning for intelligent transport systems. This project aims to develop a holistic approach for reliable positioning for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). This project will address the challenges of integrity monitoring in ITS when using satellite-based technology, its integration with other sensors, and when supported by the proposed Australia National Positioning Infrastructure. It will consider Australian geography, large area, and sparse population, and emphasise rural tra ....Trustworthy positioning for intelligent transport systems. This project aims to develop a holistic approach for reliable positioning for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). This project will address the challenges of integrity monitoring in ITS when using satellite-based technology, its integration with other sensors, and when supported by the proposed Australia National Positioning Infrastructure. It will consider Australian geography, large area, and sparse population, and emphasise rural transport. Expected primary outputs include algorithms, a detailed analysis of required systems and recommendations that will help prepare Australia for the importation of self-driving vehicles.Read moreRead less
Motorway management system integrating safety, efficiency & sustainability. This project aims to develop a motorway management system that holistically optimises motorway safety, efficiency, and sustainability via intervening the traffic flow dynamics. In the current practice of motorway traffic flow management, safety, efficiency, and sustainability are fundamentally connected but separately managed as they are modeled by distinct methodologies. The new system is based on a proposed traffic flo ....Motorway management system integrating safety, efficiency & sustainability. This project aims to develop a motorway management system that holistically optimises motorway safety, efficiency, and sustainability via intervening the traffic flow dynamics. In the current practice of motorway traffic flow management, safety, efficiency, and sustainability are fundamentally connected but separately managed as they are modeled by distinct methodologies. The new system is based on a proposed traffic flow theory which includes a microscopic model for safety analysis and a derived macroscopic model for efficiency and sustainability analysis. This theory can be used to resolve the above-mentioned long unsettled challenge and significantly improve our motorway performance.Read moreRead less
Inferring driver behaviours, intent and risk in complex traffic scenarios. This project intends to develop methods to evaluate risk during driving. The next generation of vehicles will be fitted with sophisticated perception and egocentric information. This will be combined with inter-vehicle communication enabling cooperative safety, used in conjunction with intelligent infrastructure. This technology is expected to be mandated in the United States starting from 2017. This project plans to deve ....Inferring driver behaviours, intent and risk in complex traffic scenarios. This project intends to develop methods to evaluate risk during driving. The next generation of vehicles will be fitted with sophisticated perception and egocentric information. This will be combined with inter-vehicle communication enabling cooperative safety, used in conjunction with intelligent infrastructure. This technology is expected to be mandated in the United States starting from 2017. This project plans to develop unsupervised learning algorithms to infer high-level driver behaviours, intent and contextual information to automatically evaluate levels of risk under complex driving scenarios. It plans to validate the results using naturalistic driving datasets taken in large-scale deployments around the world. This innovation may improve automotive safety and facilitate the deployment of autonomous vehicles.Read moreRead less
Proactive detection of motor vehicle crash black spots based on their underlying behavioural, engineering, and spatially related causes. Road traffic crashes are responsible for about 1400 fatalities and 32,500 injuries on Australian roadways each year. A significant research opportunity exists to fundamentally rethink how the profession quantitatively identifies black spots on the transport network. The first project aim is to develop, test, and validate an evidence based methodology to proacti ....Proactive detection of motor vehicle crash black spots based on their underlying behavioural, engineering, and spatially related causes. Road traffic crashes are responsible for about 1400 fatalities and 32,500 injuries on Australian roadways each year. A significant research opportunity exists to fundamentally rethink how the profession quantitatively identifies black spots on the transport network. The first project aim is to develop, test, and validate an evidence based methodology to proactively detect motor vehicle crash black spots. The second aim is decompose (statistically) observed crashes at a site into their engineering, behavioural, and unobserved spatial components. The new methods combined will lead to fundamentally novel insights and knowledge regarding transport network safety management, in turn leading to reductions in the Australian road toll.Read moreRead less
Intention-aware cooperative driving behaviour model for Automated Vehicles. This project aims to investigate humans' cooperation with automated systems by conceptualising joint intention awareness. This project expects to generate knowledge about a new cooperative driving behaviour model for automated vehicles, utilising a transdisciplinary approach that mixes human-centric methods with deep learning techniques. Intended outcomes are new joint intention awareness theory, new interface for automa ....Intention-aware cooperative driving behaviour model for Automated Vehicles. This project aims to investigate humans' cooperation with automated systems by conceptualising joint intention awareness. This project expects to generate knowledge about a new cooperative driving behaviour model for automated vehicles, utilising a transdisciplinary approach that mixes human-centric methods with deep learning techniques. Intended outcomes are new joint intention awareness theory, new interface for automated vehicles, new methodology for cooperative behaviour research, and enhanced research capacity. The expected significant benefits are for automated systems to become more predictable, acceptable, readable and safer to use by everyday people.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.