Center for Transportation Research and Education

About the research

This project is part of the main Iowa Department of Transportation-sponsored project, “Iowa DOT Operations Division Cooperative Autonomous Transportation (CAT) Research Support.”

This project provides funding for CTRE support to the Iowa DOT Operations Division specific to Cooperative Automated Transportation (CAT) research, applications, data analytics, demonstrations, and discovery. This work is focused to support Iowa DOTs vision of delivering a safe, reliable, and efficient transportation system by developing a supportive digitally connected driving environment.

The original objective of this task was to seek out if there are existing products on the market, or products that could be modified, to automate the alerting system.

The Iowa DOT currently uses an audible warning system with their attenuator setup. However, the system must be activated manually by the attenuator driver looking in their rear-view mirror. This is a two-stage process where lights are flashed first and if the vehicle continues to approach the truck, nor change lanes, a very loud beeping sound is broadcasted.

To date, this project now includes installing the system on ten vehicles, integrating these with existing lights and sirens, evaluating performance in the new application, and continually maintaining the system as a monthly subscription service. A task field demonstration will be added to the existing Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) project underway by CTRE for the Iowa DOT.