Automated warning methods and systems for the prevention of animal-vehicle accidents
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsThomas J. Wyble, Steven R. Moore
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems for preventing collisions between vehicles and moving hazards include the use of active signs, a network of sensors, and a controller. Such sensors can be placed adjacent to a roadway and are used to detect the presence of animals. The active signs display a local speed limit. The controller accepts the sensor signals as input and outputs display commands to the active signs. The controller maintains a rolling window of recent detections in histogram form. The recent data, together with a control law specified by the municipal authority, can be used to specify updated local speed limits to influence driver behavior.
Claims20
A method for preventing collisions between vehicles and moving hazards, said method comprising:
- generating sensor signals indicative of a plurality of detections of moving hazards via a network of sensors with respect to a roadway;
- processing said sensor signals with respect to display commands to be output to at least one active sign located adjacent said roadway;
- compiling a histogram of recent detections from among said plurality of detections by:
- during a learning mode collecting a plurality of timestamped detector events from said sensor signals, during said learning mode compiling a frequency distribution over a period of N days indicating a relative probability of detector triggers from said sensor signals versus a time of day, and during an active mode accumulating a rolling window of said period of N days of detector events in order to compile said histogram based on said frequency distribution;
- and
- adjusting said local speed limit for display via said at least one active sign based on data derived from said histogram in association with at least one specified control law to influence driving behavior of drivers of vehicles along said roadway.
A system for preventing collisions between vehicles and moving hazards, said system comprising:
- a processor;
- a data bus coupled to said processor;
- and
- a computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, said computer-usable medium being coupled to said data bus, said computer program code comprising instructions executable by said processor and configured for:
- generating sensor signals indicative of a plurality of detections of moving hazards via a network of sensors with respect to a roadway;
- processing said sensor signals with respect to display commands to be output to at least one active sign located adjacent said roadway;
- compiling a histogram of recent detections from among said plurality of detections by:
- during a learning mode collecting a plurality of timestamped detector events from said sensor signals, during said learning mode compiling a frequency distribution over a period of N days indicating a relative probability of detector triggers from said sensor signals versus a time of day, and during an active mode accumulating a rolling window of said period of N days of detector events in order to compile said histogram based on said frequency distribution;
- and
- adjusting said local speed limit for display via said at least one active sign based on data derived from said histogram in association with at least one specified control law to influence driving behavior of drivers of vehicles along said roadway.
A system for preventing collisions between vehicles and moving hazards, said system comprising:
- a network of sensors for generating sensor signals indicative of a plurality of detections of moving hazards with respect to a roadway;
- at least one processor for processing said sensor signals with respect to display commands to be output to at least one active sign located adjacent said roadway and for compiling a histogram of recent detections from among said plurality of detections by:
- during a learning mode collectins a plurality of timestamped detector events from said sensor signals, during said learning mode compiling a frequency distribution over a period of N days indicating a relative probability of detector triggers from said sensor signals versus a time of day, and during an active mode accumulating a rolling window of said period of N days of detector events in order to compile said histogram based on said frequency distribution;
- and
- at least one controller for adjusting said local speed limit for display via said at least one active sign based on data derived from said histogram in association with at least one specified control law to influence driving behavior of drivers of vehicles along said roadway.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.