Road intersections as pervasive computing environments: Towards a multiagent real-time collision warning system

Embedded with sensors and appropriate computational entities, a road intersection can be viewed as a pervasive computing environment. The crash rate in road intersections demonstrates the need for a fast and accurate collision detection system. We suggest that an intersection collision detection system should be able to adapt to different types of intersections for faster collision detection. Moreover, a real-time application-level communication protocol to warn affected drivers is required. An intersection agent that takes vehicular status information from vehicle agents and learns, detects and warns collisions at a road intersection is proposed. The issues, challenges, and cost of a multiagent collision avoidance system are discussed. A communication protocol that is designed specifically with intersection safety in mind is presented here. © 2008 IEEE.