Every year many vulnerable road users get injured or die in accidents with vehicles that could have been prevented if the vehicle driver and the vulnerable road user were aware of the dangerous situation that was ahead. Besides non-technical aids like road safety education and wearing lights for more visibility, there are numerous road safety projects. Manufacturers and governments aim at the reduction of traffic accidents. Road safety is a major concern of the European Union and therefore they have started amongst others the vehicle-to-vulnerable road user cooperative communication and sensing technologies to improve transport safety [Watch-Over] and cooperative vehicle-infrastructure systems [CVIS] projects. These projects should come up with innovative ideas to reduce the number of accidents and casualties. The innovative concept of Watch-Over is a system based on the cooperation between the vulnerable road users and vehicle drivers. By means of a wearable device for the vulnerable road user and an on-board unit for the vehicle. This thesis work contributes to this project by improving the wearable device capabilities, by increasing the working range and by adding functionality. It also contributes to the CVIS project by the integration of this cooperative approach in the their open service environment, which enables a wider use of this concept. (Author/publisher)
Abstract