SaferDrive: an NLG-based Behaviour Change Support System for Drivers

Despite the long history of Natural Language Generation (NLG) research, the potential for influencing real world behaviour through automatically generated texts has not received much attention. In this paper, we present SaferDrive, a behaviour change support system that uses NLG and telematic data in order to create weekly textual feedback for automobile drivers, which is delivered through a smartphone application. Usage-based car insurances use sensors to track driver behaviour. Although the data collected by such insurances could provide detailed feedback about the driving style, they are typically withheld from the driver and used only to calculate insurance premiums. SaferDrive instead provides detailed textual feedback about the driving style, with the intent to help drivers improve their driving habits. We evaluate the system with real drivers and report that the textual feedback generated by our system does have a positive influence on driving habits, especially with regard to speeding

Sense and Avoid Characterization of the Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operations of Unmanned Systems

AbstractIndependent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operations of Unmanned Systems (ICAROUS) is a distributed software architecture developed by NASA Langley Research Center to enable safe autonomous UAS operations. ICAROUS consists of a collection formally verified core algorithms for path planning, traffic avoidance, geofence handling, and decision making that interface with an autopilot system through a publisher-subscriber middleware. The ICAROUS Sense and Avoid Characterization (ISAAC) test was designed to evaluate the performance of the onboard Sense and Avoid (SAA) capability to detect potential conflicts with other aircraft and autonomously maneuver to avoid collisions, while remaining within the airspace boundaries of the mission. The ISAAC tests evaluated the impact of separation distances and alerting times on SAA performance. A preliminary analysis of the effects of each parameter on key measures of performance is conducted, informing the choice of appropriate parameter values for different small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) applications. Furthermore, low-power Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) is evaluated for potential use to enable autonomous sUAS to sUAS deconflictions as well as to provide usable warnings for manned aircraft without saturating the frequency spectrum

VANET Applications: Hot Use Cases

Current challenges of car manufacturers are to make roads safe, to achieve free flowing traffic with few congestions, and to reduce pollution by an effective fuel use. To reach these goals, many improvements are performed in-car, but more and more approaches rely on connected cars with communication capabilities between cars, with an infrastructure, or with IoT devices. Monitoring and coordinating vehicles allow then to compute intelligent ways of transportation. Connected cars have introduced a new way of thinking cars - not only as a mean for a driver to go from A to B, but as smart cars - a user extension like the smartphone today. In this report, we introduce concepts and specific vocabulary in order to classify current innovations or ideas on the emerging topic of smart car. We present a graphical categorization showing this evolution in function of the societal evolution. Different perspectives are adopted: a vehicle-centric view, a vehicle-network view, and a user-centric view; described by simple and complex use-cases and illustrated by a list of emerging and current projects from the academic and industrial worlds. We identified an empty space in innovation between the user and his car: paradoxically even if they are both in interaction, they are separated through different application uses. Future challenge is to interlace social concerns of the user within an intelligent and efficient driving

Architectures for embedded multimodal sensor data fusion systems in the robotics : and airport traffic suveillance ; domain

Smaller autonomous robots and embedded sensor data fusion systems often suffer from limited computational and hardware resources. Many ‘Real Time’ algorithms for multi modal sensor data fusion cannot be executed on such systems, at least not in real time and sometimes not at all, because of the computational and energy resources needed, resulting from the architecture of the computational hardware used in these systems. Alternative hardware architectures for generic tracking algorithms could provide a solution to overcome some of these limitations. For tracking and self localization sequential Bayesian filters, in particular particle filters, have been shown to be able to handle a range of tracking problems that could not be solved with other algorithms. But particle filters have some serious disadvantages when executed on serial computational architectures used in most systems. The potential increase in performance for particle filters is huge as many of the computational steps can be done concurrently. A generic hardware solution for particle filters can relieve the central processing unit from the computational load associated with the tracking task. The general topic of this research are hardware-software architectures for multi modal sensor data fusion in embedded systems in particular tracking, with the goal to develop a high performance computational architecture for embedded applications in robotics and airport traffic surveillance domain. The primary concern of the research is therefore: The integration of domain specific concept support into hardware architectures for low level multi modal sensor data fusion, in particular embedded systems for tracking with Bayesian filters; and a distributed hardware-software tracking systems for airport traffic surveillance and control systems. Runway Incursions are occurrences at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle, or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take-off of aircraft. The growing traffic volume kept runway incursions on the NTSB’s ‘Most Wanted’ list for safety improvements for over a decade. Recent incidents show that problem is still existent. Technological responses that have been deployed in significant numbers are ASDE-X and A-SMGCS. Although these technical responses are a significant improvement and reduce the frequency of runway incursions, some runway incursion scenarios are not optimally covered by these systems, detection of runway incursion events is not as fast as desired, and they are too expensive for all but the biggest airports. Local, short range sensors could be a solution to provide the necessary affordable surveillance accuracy for runway incursion prevention. In this context the following objectives shall be reached. 1) Show the feasibility of runway incursion prevention systems based on localized surveillance. 2) Develop a design for a local runway incursion alerting system. 3) Realize a prototype of the system design using the developed tracking hardware.Kleinere autonome Roboter und eingebettete Sensordatenfusionssysteme haben oft mit stark begrenzter Rechenkapazität und eingeschränkten Hardwareressourcen zu kämpfen. Viele Echtzeitalgorithmen für die Fusion von multimodalen Sensordaten können, bedingt durch den hohen Bedarf an Rechenkapazität und Energie, auf solchen Systemen überhaupt nicht ausgeführt werden, oder zu mindesten nicht in Echtzeit. Der hohe Bedarf an Energie und Rechenkapazität hat seine Ursache darin, dass die Architektur der ausführenden Hardware und der ausgeführte Algorithmus nicht aufeinander abgestimmt sind. Dies betrifft auch Algorithmen zu Spurverfolgung. Mit Hilfe von alternativen Hardwarearchitekturen für die generische Ausführung solcher Algorithmen könnten sich einige der typischerweise vorliegenden Einschränkungen überwinden lassen. Eine Reihe von Aufgaben, die sich mit anderen Spurverfolgungsalgorithmen nicht lösen lassen, lassen sich mit dem Teilchenfilter, einem Algorithmus aus der Familie der Bayesschen Filter lösen. Bei der Ausführung auf traditionellen Architekturen haben Teilchenfilter gegenüber anderen Algorithmen einen signifikanten Nachteil, allerdings ist hier ein großer Leistungszuwachs durch die nebenläufige Ausführung vieler Rechenschritte möglich. Eine generische Hardwarearchitektur für Teilchenfilter könnte deshalb die oben genannten Systeme stark entlasten. Das allgemeine Thema dieses Forschungsvorhabens sind Hardware-Software-Architekturen für die multimodale Sensordatenfusion auf eingebetteten Systemen - speziell für Aufgaben der Spurverfolgung, mit dem Ziel eine leistungsfähige Architektur für die Berechnung entsprechender Algorithmen auf eingebetteten Systemen zu entwickeln, die für Anwendungen in der Robotik und Verkehrsüberwachung auf Flughäfen geeignet ist. Das Augenmerk des Forschungsvorhabens liegt dabei auf der Integration von vom Einsatzgebiet abhängigen Konzepten in die Architektur von Systemen zur Spurverfolgung mit Bayeschen Filtern, sowie auf verteilten Hardware-Software Spurverfolgungssystemen zur Überwachung und Führung des Rollverkehrs auf Flughäfen. Eine „Runway Incursion“ (RI) ist ein Vorfall auf einem Flugplatz, bei dem ein Fahrzeug oder eine Person sich unerlaubt in einem Abschnitt der Start- bzw. Landebahn befindet, der einem Verkehrsteilnehmer zur Benutzung zugewiesen wurde. Der wachsende Flugverkehr hat dafür gesorgt, das RIs seit über einem Jahrzehnt auf der „Most Wanted“-Liste des NTSB für Verbesserungen der Sicherheit stehen. Jüngere Vorfälle zeigen, dass das Problem noch nicht behoben ist. Technologische Maßnahmen die in nennenswerter Zahl eingesetzt wurden sind das ASDE-X und das A-SMGCS. Obwohl diese Maßnahmen eine deutliche Verbesserung darstellen und die Zahl der RIs deutlich reduzieren, gibt es einige RISituationen die von diesen Systemen nicht optimal abgedeckt werden. Außerdem detektieren sie RIs ist nicht so schnell wie erwünscht und sind - außer für die größten Flughäfen - zu teuer. Lokale Sensoren mit kurzer Reichweite könnten eine Lösung sein um die für die zuverlässige Erkennung von RIs notwendige Präzision bei der Überwachung des Rollverkehrs zu erreichen. Vor diesem Hintergrund sollen die folgenden Ziele erreicht werden. 1) Die Machbarkeit eines Runway Incursion Vermeidungssystems, das auf lokalen Sensoren basiert, zeigen. 2) Einen umsetzbaren Entwurf für ein solches System entwickeln. 3) Einen Prototypen des Systems realisieren, das die oben gennannte Hardware zur Spurverfolgung einsetzt

Development of Stationary and Mobile Tailgating Detection Solutions for Ground Vehicles

Improving the safety of North American roadways is a top priority for government agencies and transportation organizations alike. Regulations on appropriate driving behavior have been developed to minimize the likelihood of crashes occurring, but law enforcement tools remain to be fully developed and applied in the field. One prominent example of this is tailgating – the dangerous act of one ground vehicle following another too closely. This activity is responsible for thousands of crashes every year, but police officers currently have few tools to accurately detect and document tailgating events. Though tailgating often occurs in a wide variety of vehicle scenarios, the most hazardous class of tailgating is that which occurs when a semitrailer, more commonly called an 18-wheeler, follows a passenger vehicle too closely. The difference in mass between a semitrailer and a passenger vehicle results in a stopping distance nearly twice as long for the former. In addition, truck drivers may be fatigued and unable to react as quickly to emergency situations, further increasing the risk of a deadly crash. Therefore, a tool is necessary that enables officers to determine when tailgating occurs, and allows them to document the event for use by prosecutors in a court of law

Judging traffic differentiation as network neutrality violation according to internet regulation

Network Neutrality (NN) is a principle that establishes that traffic generated by Internet applications should be treated equally and it should not be affected by arbitrary interfer- ence, degradation, or interruption. Despite this common sense, NN has multiple defi- nitions spread across the academic literature, which differ primarily on what constitutes the proper equality level to consider the network as neutral. NN definitions may also be included in regulations that control activities on the Internet. However, the regulations are set by regulators whose acts are valid within a geographical area, named jurisdic- tion. Thus, both the academia and regulations provide multiple and heterogeneous NN definitions. In this thesis, the regulations are used as guidelines to detect NN violations, which are, by this approach, the adoption of traffic management practices prohibited by regulators. Thereafter, the solutions can provide helpful information for users to support claims against illegal traffic management practices. However, state-of-the-art solutions adopt strict academic definitions (e.g., all traffic must be treated equally) or adopt the regulatory definitions from one jurisdiction, which is not realistic or does not consider that multiple jurisdictions may be traversed in an end-to-end network path, respectively An impact analysis showed that, under certain circumstances, from 39% to 48% of the detected Traffic Differentiations (TDs) are not NN violations when the regulations are considered, exposing that the regulatory aspect must not be ignored. In this thesis, a Reg- ulation Assessment step is proposed to be performed after the TD detection. This step shall consider all NN definitions that may be found in an end-to-end network path and point out NN violation when they are violated. A service is proposed to perform this step for TD detection solutions, given the unfeasibility of every solution implementing the re- quired functionalities. A Proof-of-Concept (PoC) prototype was developed based on the requirements identified along with the impact analysis, which was evaluated using infor- mation about TDs detected by a state-of-the-art solution. The verdicts were inconclusive (the TD is an NN violation or not) for a quarter of the scenarios due to lack of information about the traversed network paths and the occurrence zones (where in the network path, the TD is suspected of being deployed). However, the literature already has proposals of approaches to obtain such information. These results should encourage TD detection solution proponents to collect this data and submit them for the Regulation Assessment.Neutralidade da rede (NR) é um princípio que estabelece que o tráfego de aplicações e serviços seja tratado igualitariamente e não deve ser afetado por interferência, degradação, ou interrupção arbitrária. Apesar deste senso comum, NR tem múltiplas definições na literatura acadêmica, que diferem principalmente no que constitui o nível de igualdade adequado para considerar a rede como neutra. As definições de NR também podem ser incluídas nas regulações que controlam as atividades na Internet. No entanto, tais regu- lações são definidas por reguladores cujos atos são válidos apenas dentro de uma área geográfica denominada jurisdição. Assim, tanto a academia quanto a regulação forne- cem definições múltiplas e heterogêneas de NR. Nesta tese, a regulação é utilizada como guia para detecção de violação da NR, que nesta abordagem, é a adoção de práticas de gerenciamento de tráfego proibidas pelos reguladores. No entanto, as soluções adotam definições estritas da academia (por exemplo, todo o tráfego deve ser tratado igualmente) ou adotam as definições regulatórias de uma jurisdição, o que pode não ser realista ou pode não considerar que várias jurisdições podem ser atravessadas em um caminho de rede, respectivamente. Nesta tese, é proposta uma etapa de Avaliação da Regulação após a detecção da Diferenciação de Tráfego (DT), que deve considerar todas as definições de NR que podem ser encontradas em um caminho de rede e sinalizar violações da NR quando elas forem violadas. Uma análise de impacto mostrou que, em determinadas cir- cunstâncias, de 39% a 48% das DTs detectadas não são violações quando a regulação é considerada. É proposto um serviço para realizar a etapa de Avaliação de Regulação, visto que seria inviável que todas as soluções tivessem que implementar tal etapa. Um protótipo foi desenvolvido e avaliado usando informações sobre DTs detectadas por uma solução do estado-da-arte. Os veredictos foram inconclusivos (a DT é uma violação ou não) para 75% dos cenários devido à falta de informações sobre os caminhos de rede percorridos e sobre onde a DT é suspeita de ser implantada. No entanto, existem propostas para realizar a coleta dessas informações e espera-se que os proponentes de soluções de detecção de DT passem a coletá-las e submetê-las para o serviço de Avaliação de Regulação

Design and Evaluation of Nextgen Aircraft Separation Assurance Concepts

To support the development and evaluation of future function allocation concepts for separation assurance systems for the Next Generation Air Transportation System, this paper presents the design and human-in-the-loop evaluation of three feasible function allocation concepts that allocate primary aircraft separation assurance responsibilities and workload to: 1) pilots; 2) air traffic controllers (ATC); and 3) automation. The design of these concepts also included rules of the road, separation assurance burdens for aircraft of different equipage levels, and utilization of advanced weather displays paired with advanced conflict detection and resolution automation. Results of the human-in-the-loop simulation show that: a) all the concepts are robust with respect to weather perturbation; b) concept 1 (pilots) had highest throughput, closest to assigned spacing, and fewest violations of speed and altitude restrictions; c) the energy of the aircraft during the descent phase was better managed in concepts 1 and 2 (pilots and ATC) than in concept 3 (automation), in which the situation awareness of pilots and controllers was lowest, and workload of pilots was highest. The paper also discusses further development of these concepts and their augmentation and integration with future air traffic management tools and systems that are being considered for NextGen

FAIR: Forwarding Accountability for Internet Reputability

This paper presents FAIR, a forwarding accountability mechanism that incentivizes ISPs to apply stricter security policies to their customers. The Autonomous System (AS) of the receiver specifies a traffic profile that the sender AS must adhere to. Transit ASes on the path mark packets. In case of traffic profile violations, the marked packets are used as a proof of misbehavior. FAIR introduces low bandwidth overhead and requires no per-packet and no per-flow state for forwarding. We describe integration with IP and demonstrate a software switch running on commodity hardware that can switch packets at a line rate of 120 Gbps, and can forward 140M minimum-sized packets per second, limited by the hardware I/O subsystem. Moreover, this paper proposes a "suspicious bit" for packet headers - an application that builds on top of FAIR's proofs of misbehavior and flags packets to warn other entities in the network.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure

Scoring mechanism for automated ATC systems

Given the exponential expansion of air transport that pressures the existing infrastructure and makes the current systems over-capacitated, it is no surprise that automated Air Traffic Control (ATC) Systems are on the rise. These systems will improve the situational awareness of Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) while reducing their workload and potentially allowing for capacity increases. An example of such a system is the prototype ATC Real Ground-Breaking Operational System (ARGOS), entirely designed by EUROCONTROL Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC). The system is evolving daily, and it will become MUAC¿s most intelligent agent to support ATCOs in their decision-making process. It is built to take complete care of basic Controller-Pilot Data-Link Communications (CPDLC), i.e., flights logged onto CPDLC not involved in any complex scenario, and to provide support for complex traffic scenarios. The current version provides conflict detection tools and suggests conflict-free trajectories. The prototype lacks a metrics-based system to evaluate its performance to be able to tune its parameters; thus, the focus of this project is to design a scoring mechanism to assess its performance based on the instructions given to the pilot. The first part is represented by the development of a concept that incorporates the current safety criteria in ATC and introduces new performance criteria relevant to ARGOS (and ATC). In contrast, the second part is a posteriori analysis of the output log files of the prototype that store the coordinates of all current simulated flights along with the commands given by ARGOS. Two types of scores were considered. The D-Score or the decreasing score measures the efficiency of ARGOS concerning operational safety. In this case, a score of 100% is perfect. It is conceptualized according to safety ATC requirements. The I-Score or the increasing score measures the inefficiency of ARGOS, so higher is less effective. It provides information related to the performance of the trajectory proposed by ARGOS.Incomin

Performance evaluation of dissemination protocols over vehicular networks for an automatic speed fine system

© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Vehicular accidents cause severe problems in our society including economic, material, and even life losses. The cause of those situations relies on several factors such as traffic density, vehicular flow, lack of traffic signaling and speed limit violations. Some of these problems cannot completely be eliminated but could be mitigated by proposing solutions such as people's awareness or intelligent radars to monitor speed limit violations. This work proposes a system to automatically generate fines in case of speed limit infractions. Our approach uses vehicular networks to monitor the vehicles' speed. We also propose a dissemination protocol to ensure the propagation and delivery of the generated fines at the road-side units, achieving a 94.99% and 99.91% fine delivery rate in urban scenarios with vehicles' densities of 30 and 200 vehicles per km 2 , respectively.This work was supported by the Spanish Government through Research Project ‘‘sMArt Grid using Open Source Intelligence (MAGOS)’’ under Grant TEC2017-84197-C4-3-R.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version