Caitlin Motsinger ● Sure Program ● Summer 2007

1. High-Powered Signals for Bike-to-Bike Comm. Tire Mounted Comm. Nodes Speed Sensor Concept of Bike-to-Bike Communications Vehicle-to-VehicleCommunications Through Tires Contact E-mails: motsing@ces.clemson.edu hubing@clemson.edu Caitlin Motsinger●Sure Program● Summer 2007 Advisor: Dr. Todd Hubing●Graduate Student Assistant: Robert ClippardClemson University●Clemson, South Carolina Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications Commutation Systems in Tires Bike-to-Bike Communications The basic idea is to equip automotives with wireless communication systems, allowing them to exchange real time information during travel. Unlike previous vehicle communications, it is the internal control systems rather than drivers doing the talking. The system is mainly autonomous from the drivers’ perspectives – they are only made aware of it if a situation arises that needs their attention. The overall goal? Expand drivers’ horizons and make them more aware of their environment and relative position to each other. The main interest of this research was looking at the possible benefits of placing vehicle communication systems in tires. There are a number of reasons why this could prove to be the best location. The tires provide four convenient, externally located mounting platforms. Also, the inflated tube can provide protection in the event of a crash. Older cars could be updated with communication systems when tires are replaced. Last and most importantly, the extra degree of freedom (forward as well as rotational) might help avoid bad transmission areas. A small scale demonstration system was built using bicycles. The motivation behind this was to have a physical example of working tire-to-tire communications, and to be able to run simple experiments on communication quality between rotating platforms. Main Components: THE TIRE NODE Sun SPOT by Sun Microsystems Laboratory 2.4 GHz 802.15.4 radio 3 axis accelerometer Plastic encasement Programmed with Java THE SPEED SENSOR Target and Sensor from Schwinn Magnetic sensor Digital open/close switch Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communications Functionality of the System Instead of communicating with each other, with vehicle-to-infrastructure communications vehicles talk back to base station nodes placed intermittently along the road. The car wirelessly communicates with these stations, from which the data can be transferred either wirelessly or through land lines to a third party. In this way, information can be collected from a large number of vehicles and a larger picture of roadway conditions can be formed. The final system has two wireless nodes mounted on separate bikes. Each bike measures its own speed and distance traveled, and receives the current speed and distance of the other bike over its radio. The RSSI between the two nodes is also recorded. One of the nodes also relays all information wirelessly to a base station on a computer. A simple GUI allows user to view and save data. Applications: Safety and Efficiency The information provided by V2V and V2I makes drivers aware of dangerous situations in time to take appropriate action. This allows safety to focus on prevention rather than just mitigation. Example application situations: poor weather, intersection and lane change violations, locating cyclists and pedestrians, and slow moving traffic around blind curves. The Michelin Paper Future of this Research Michelin Americas Research and Development Cooperation (MARC) has two main technical opportunities in V2V and V2I: the chance to utilize “smart” tire sensors, such as those that can measure air pressure and tire road cohesion, and the chance to push for placement of communication systems in tires. To better understand these opportunities, MARC requested a research paper outlining the current research being conducted and business factors that might affect MARC’s place in the tire market. The final paper contains a listing and short description of pertinent government research initiatives in Europe, North America, and Asia, bandwidth allocation in all three areas, IEEE standards development in North America, business considerations, and recommendations to MARC on what initiatives yield the best business opportunities. • Use bikes for in field testing • Use 3 axis accelerometer to collect data • Flood communication link to determine performance • See how system is affected by the addition more transmitting nodes • Create a user interface • Test bikes at different speeds and distances • Examine RSSI values while rotating vs. while stationary • Experiment to find the max range of the system • See if link quality is improved by tire mounting Travel efficiency can be improved as well. Slow traffic wastes time and money, as well as increasing pollution. With information uploaded to navigation units during driving all, users can avoid congestion, quickly reroute around accidents, and better predict travel time. The end result is safer, more enjoyable driving. Funding for this research provided by: Michelin Americas Research and Development Center