The two-second rule, taught in driver鈥檚 ed classes across the country, is a rule of thumb that helps drivers maintain a safe distance from the car ahead at any speed. Adhering to the two-second rule can be difficult. A team of engineers led by , associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has developed an assistive technology to help drivers maintain this guidance to smooth out traffic jams and improve safety.
A preprint of the article, 鈥淐AN Coach: Vehicular Control through Human Cyber-Physical Systems,鈥� was on April 8, and the paper was presented at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems during May 18鈥�21. Researchers on the project include , a current graduate student, and , PhD鈥�03, one of the School of Engineering鈥檚 newest professors of computer science.
Work鈥檚 team introduced a controller area network coach to cars鈥攁 system that gives real-time feedback to drivers using radar data containing speed and position relative to the car ahead. Their goal was to see if they could use sensors already available within vehicles on the road to successfully help drivers maintain a safe distance鈥攊n essence to drive in a way no human can do alone, said Work, who also is a .
The technology was successful. By comparing six drivers with and without the CAN coach, the engineers determined that drivers with the assistive technology came closer to and maintained the two-second rule. Drivers using the coach reduced the average time-gap error by 73 percent and improved consistency, reducing the standard deviation of the time-gap error by 53 percent.
鈥淭his experiment gives us every indication that when drivers are given feedback by the car, they can accomplish complex driving tasks,鈥� Work said. 鈥淲e are now exploring how coached human drivers may ultimately help improve traffic conditions overall.鈥� Work鈥檚 team intends to expand the experiments to larger cohorts of drivers and is looking into creating systems that deliver personalized feedback that improves performance and minimizes intervention.
The 2021 CPS-IOT Week and ICCPS conference are hosted by the Vanderbilt , a research organization conducting聽basic and applied research in the area of systems and information science and engineering. Applications of the organization鈥檚聽technology spans a wide range of software-intensive systems, from small embedded devices through real-time distributed systems to globally deployed complex systems. The ICCPS conference is chaired by , chair of the department of electrical engineering and computer science.
The research was funded by NSF grant CNS- 1837652 and the under the award CID DE-EE0008872.
