An effective back-up support system of P-VCASS by laser scanners in intersections

The objective of this paper is to developed a collision avoidance support system between pedestrians and vehicles in intersections. The authors have already developed VCASS (Vehicular Collision Avoidance Support System) [3], [4] and P-VCASS (Pedestrian-Vehicular Collision Avoidance Support System) which extends the functions of VCASS for pedestrians [6], [7]. This paper focuses on P-VCASS. There are two problems to develop P-VCASS. 1) It needs a long time for P-VCASS to be widely used in the society. 2) The GPS measurement error is not negligible in urban areas. Hence, P-VCASS lacks the reliability to prevent collisions between pedestrians and vehicles particularly in intersections. In this paper, we propose an effective back-up support system of P-VCASS. The approach is using laser scanners in intersections and can be broadly used in urban areas. The system is setting the infrastructure equipped with laser scanners and the communication facility around intersections. By using this system, it is able to judge correct pedestrian´s position and situation by detecting pedestrians. If the system detects high possibility of collision, it will send a warning message to vehicles. We show the validity of the proposed system by experiments using a laser scanner.