Blocker Vehicle Restricted-Zone Alerts for Approaching Traffic
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Solution Overview
Problem
Increased incidents of vehicles colliding with blocker vehicles at emergency scenes due to distracted drivers, posing risks to personnel and equipment.
Innovation Solution
A collision avoidance system for blocker vehicles that uses sensors to detect approaching vehicles, generates a restricted zone, and activates alert systems or collision avoidance mechanisms based on threat scores exceeding a threshold.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If blocker vehicles are used to prevent approaching vehicles from entering a scene, then personnel safety is improved, but the risk of collision with distracted drivers increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of approaching vehicles using sensors before they reach the blocker vehicle. By identifying potential threats in advance and calculating threat scores based on trajectory analysis, the system can issue warnings to both the blocker vehicle operator and approaching vehicles before a collision becomes imminent, thereby preventing accidents caused by distracted drivers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the environment around the blocker vehicle using sensors and provides real-time feedback through threat score calculations. When a vehicle is detected approaching the restricted zone, the system generates alerts and notifications to inform the blocker vehicle operator and the approaching driver of the potential collision risk, enabling timely corrective actions.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If sensors and processing circuits are added to detect approaching vehicles, then collision detection capability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor system is designed to perform multiple functions: detecting approaching vehicles, tracking their trajectories, calculating threat scores, and generating alerts. By consolidating these functions into an integrated system rather than separate components, the patent reduces overall system complexity while maintaining comprehensive collision detection and warning capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The processing circuits automatically analyze sensor data, calculate threat scores, and generate alerts without requiring manual intervention. The system self-manages the entire process from detection to warning issuance, reducing the operational complexity and burden on the blocker vehicle operator while maintaining high detection capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle is configured to be positioned upstream of traffic relative to a scene to protect personnel responding to the scene. The vehicle includes a collision avoidance and mitigation system configured to alert personnel on the scene of a threat caused by an approaching vehicle and/or alert the driver of the approaching vehicle of the scene. The collision avoidance and mitigation system is configured to determine a restricted zone around the vehicle. The restricted zone is determined by detecting scene markers or personnel at the scene or the restricted zone can be entered via a user interface. The restricted zone can be updated as the scene markers are deployed or personnel move around the scene. An alert is generated responsive to a threat score related to the probability of the approaching vehicle entering the restricted zone exceeding a threshold.