An Architecture for Intelligent Automotive Collision Avoidance Systems

Since 1960’s significant progress has been made with regard to vehicle safety. In spite of this progress, each year in the United States, motor vehicle crashes still account for approximately 40,000 deaths, more than three million injuries, and over $130 billion in financial losses [1]. Development of Automotive Collision Warning Systems (ACWS) is the next significant step towards vehicle safety technology. Such systems try to warn the driver about an impending collision. Most of the proposed ACWS are based on laser or radar technology, which requires line of sight communication. During the last several years, wireless technology has drawn significant interest among the people in both industry and academia. Interest in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology has also increased significantly during the last several years. GPS systems are increasingly becoming popular for vehicle systems. In this paper, we have proposed an architecture (using GPS, electronic compass and Bluetooth devices) for Automotive Collision Avoidance Systems (ACAS). Our main goal was to theoretically study the feasibility of using GPS, electronic compass and Bluetooth devices towards the development of ACAS. Our current work deals with keeping a vehicle within safe distances from other vehicles around it. Our theoretical study shows that it is doable