The ultimate objective of the ARMAS project was to assess the feasibility of an Intelligent Car Navigation System, based in GNSS and CN technologies, in order to improve the safety of car navigation by an order of magnitude, make dynamic traffic management an attractive and realistic proposition and provide a competitive solution for tolling. The work performed under the ARMAS project comprised the implementation of an ARMAS test-bed for advanced ITS applications and the investigation of the critical issues related with the successful introduction of Virtual Tolling, focusing on topics like reliability, integrity and fraud robustness. Tolling Based on using Satellite Positioning on Highways and Urban Areas (Zone Tolling), Warnings Provision and SOS Requests were demonstrated in the project.
- Use of DSCR plus GNSS and CN technologies;
- Definition of Virtual Tolling Points/Zones;
- Calculation of the Toll Charge based on variables like:
- Detection and Identification of vehicles using the Virtually-Tolled road/zone segment;
- Travelled Path;
- Number of Kilometres;
- Moment of Use;
- Duration of Use;
- Traffic Status in the Moment of Use;
- Type of Vehicle.
Warning Provision functionality was:
- Provide in advance warnings to the driver about hazardous situations that can be a threat to the safe circulation of the vehicle;
- Monitoring of the vehicle motion and the location of hazards;
- Provide different levels of magnitude varying in accordance with the hazard threat level.
- Transmission of the warnings to the driver by using an appropriate interface in order to inform without distracting;
SOS Request functionality was:
- The SOS Requests can be classified as:
- Accident – The driver is involved or detects an accident;
- Mechanic aid – The driver is involved in or detects a situation of vehicle breakdown;
- Medical aid – The driver needs or detects a situation of medical assistance;
- Criminal act – The driver need or detects a situation that requires the police intervention;
- Fire detection – The driver detects a fire.
- Whenever a SOS Request is triggered (by the driver or automatically), the driver needs to classify it: in case of non-selection of the cause by the driver a Critical SOS is triggered;
-
The Automatic SOS Request is based on analysis of vehicle’ sensors and has three (3) different levels of importance:
- High – correspond to the Critical SOS. No driver intervention is required and the SOS is immediately reported:
- Medium – ask the driver if help is needed. When the time out for the answer expires the SOS Request is sent;
- Low – ask the driver if help is needed. When the time out for the answer expires and the driver didn’t confirm a problem, nothing is done;