Impact, considerations, and benefits of implementing C-ITS in NSW

Understanding the impact of Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) at work on NSW roads will help connected and automated vehicles safely navigate the complexities of urban and pedestrian environments. The completed Development and demonstration of C-ITS on NSW roads project undertook research aimed at understanding the impact, considerations and benefits of implementing C-ITS.

C-ITS take advantage of real-time connectivity to orchestrate and optimise traffic management across a wide area. This includes incorporating data from vehicles which can communicate with the internet and each other, as well as Intelligent Roadside Units (IRSU) such as connected traffic lights and road signs.

Funded by the iMOVE CRC, the project involved the design, development and deployment of an IRSU at an intersection controlled by the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS).

It demonstrated the benefits of assisting human drivers in connected vehicles (CV), such as providing warnings if the vehicle is about to fail to stop at a red light.

As a strong collaboration between Transport for NSW (TfNSW) and the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) at the University of Sydney, the project also demonstrated assisting the ACFR’s driverless Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) navigate through signalised and unsignalised intersections.

The findings help shape CAV policy both for the research community and TfNSW in line with the NSW Government’s Future Transport Strategy 2056 and TfNSW’s Towards Zero vision for a safer road network.

Background and objectives

The ‘Development and demonstration of C-ITS on NSW roads’ project builds on the strong collaboration between TfNSW and ACFR to develop and demonstrate an advanced C-ITS on NSW roads. It utilises the expertise developed in three previous projects:

1. Safely introducing CAVs into integrated transport networks (iMOVE project 1-012) which proposed safe operating principles focusing on urban and pedestrian environments and demonstrated the use of intelligent infrastructure to enhance the safety of CAVs.
2. DSRC and cooperative perception (iMOVE project 1-006) which developed and tested pedestrian and vehicle tracking in urban environments, along with a cross-platform data fusion scheme to assimilate information from multiple sources.
3. Data analytic tools for developing and testing of AVs on urban roads (iMOVE project 1-044) which focused on providing comprehensive Australian driving data and software analysis tools to enable digital twins and allow testing and validation of autonomous vehicleE algorithms.

This ‘Development and Demonstration of C-ITS on NSW roads’ project is motivated by increasing interest in Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication technology among automobile manufacturers and researchers in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

The project will produce reports, papers and presentations with analysis of results, data, algorithms and guidelines, as well as release developed tools and collected data to the public for the AV community, to foster collaboration and further research in this field.

Key objectives include examining the impact of C-ITS messages on the safety of CAVs and CVs, assessing the benefits of intelligent infrastructure for traffic coordination, collaborating with the SCATS team and supporting the development of technical advice for CAV policy.

Design and development

The project involved the design, development and deployment of an Intelligent Roadside Unit (IRSU) at a SCATS-controlled intersection in the inner Sydney suburb of Chippendale, NSW.

The IRSU utilises a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) for real-time road user detection and broadcasts this information using Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC).

The project also involved upgrading SCATS traffic lights to broadcast MAP (topology) Extended Messages (MAPEMs) and Signal Phase and Timing Extended Messages (SPATEMs).

The test vehicle was a Level 4 capable autonomous vehicle, purpose-built in 2017 and used for numerous pieces of autonomy research. It features LiDAR, six optical cameras, GPS and a transceiver for communicating in V2X networks.

A Volkswagen Passat was also included as a CV in the demonstrations to address the use cases of interest to the SCATS team.

Integration with SCATS

Collaboration with SCATS was crucial for the project, enabling the demonstration of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication and providing valuable data on infrastructure requirements for C-ITS.

This included collaborating with the SCATS team on broadcast and use of MAPEMs and SPATEMs from SCATS’ intelligent traffic lights, as well as broadcast and use of Collective Perception Messages (CPMs) from ACFR’s IRSU.

Demonstrations in controlled environments

Australian Centre for Robotics lab

A mock intersection was created in the ACFR lab in order to validate the operation of the automated driving system and DSRC messages in a controlled environment.

For this mock intersection, only basic lanes were created virtually, without drawing lane markings on the ground, and a mock traffic light was employed for sending simulated MAPEMs and SPATEMs.

Demonstrations included right-of-way decisions relying on vehicle information exchanged by use of Cooperative Awareness Messages (CAMs).

Cudal Future Mobility Testing and Research Centre

To showcase the utility of Red Light Violation Warnings (RLVW), a series of tests with vehicle speeds ranging from 40 to 80 km/h were conducted at the Cudal Future Mobility Testing and Research Centre.

RLVW technology was demonstrated with members of the public able to ride along in the vehicles, and talk to the researchers about how the systems work.

The RLVW algorithm is based on the concept of Time To Collision (TTC), with the current speed of the vehicle used to calculate the time it will take to reach the stop line and if it is expected to stop in time.

In live traffic

The operational area for automated driving was a 700-metre loop in the Chippendale area comprising public roads and a shared zone containing signalised and unsignalised intersections.

A key focus was the successful operation of a CAV through a signalised intersection using DSRC messages, provided by the SCATS network in real-time. The capability for the CAV was enhanced to enable yielding at an intersection based on data from nearby CVs and was demonstrated at a roundabout along the approved route.

Additional manual driving use cases were demonstrated, having been identified by SCATS as being of interest in the V2I space: Red Light Violation Warning, User Turn Warning for Vulnerable Road Users, User Turn Warning with Pedestrian Crossing Occupancy and Time to Green alerts. These use cases were addressed in the manually driven VW Passat, which is a CV.

Conclusions

The two-year long project successfully concluded that the implementation of C-ITS in urban traffic environments offers significant impacts, considerations and benefits.

The demonstrations highlighted the potential of intelligent infrastructure to extend local perception, as well as the ability of C-ITS messages to provide crucial information to both human drivers and automated systems about the surrounding environment and traffic conditions. This broadly supports the safety aims of the research.

The successful demonstrations of V2I communication provided valuable data on the infrastructure requirements for supporting C-ITS technologies. The findings contribute to best practices for implementing and testing C-ITS technologies in alignment with European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standards, and could also offer transferable insights applicable to cellular V2X systems.

For TfNSW, the outcomes also support the formulation of technical guidance for CAV policy and highlight the essential role of traffic management infrastructure in shaping the future of urban mobility.

For the research community, the project provided insights into best practices for implementing and testing C-ITS technologies, particularly in urban environments. The demonstrations highlighted the importance of integrating various information sources (such as on-board sensors and C-ITS messages) and the need for redundancies to ensure safe and reliable operation in different traffic scenarios.

Finally, the research provides the foundation for further research including exploring future applications of real-time vehicle interactions and pedestrian safety enhancements.

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