Watch-over – the Concept of a Cooperative System for Vehicle to Vulnerable Road Users Communication

WATCH-OVER is a European Specific Targeted project co-funded by the European Commission Information Society and Media within the initiatives of the cooperative systems for traffic safety and efficiency based on communication and sensor technologies. The project, supported by EUCAR and coordinated by Centro Ricerche Fiat, includes in its consortium vehicle and motorcycle makers, technology, automotive suppliers and research centres for the design, development and testing phase. The main goal of the WATCH-OVER project is to avoid road accidents that involve vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. The innovative system concept, presented in this paper, will be represented by the cooperation of an on-board platform and a vulnerable user module. It is based on the interaction between an in-vehicle unit and users’ devices that will allow all road users to take an active part in traffic in urban and extra-urban areas. For that reason the WATCH-OVER project carries out research and development activities in order to design and develop an efficient system for accident prevention.