Overview
The key objective for this project was the implementation of a low cost data acquisition system that provides weather-related road information to weather analysts throughout the country in near-real time using a fleet of 60 vehicles along the I-94 corridor in southern Michigan. This work is part of an on-going research initiative to identify how state DOTs will use and benefit from the large quantities of data generated by future connected vehicle programs and to assist in refining connected vehicle system requirements. The project employed an Android-based customized smartphone system called DataProbe to gather information from the phone (date, time, latitude and longitude, altitude, number of satellites, speed, accelerometer data, and compass heading); the vehicle through its controller area network (CAN) (air and coolant temperature, odometer, barometer, tachometer, speedometer, throttle, brakes, anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC), engine traction control and braking traction control); and through external sensors, Surface Patrol, that measure road and air temperature, humidity, and dew point. This data is collected by the phone in one second intervals [except for accelerometer data which is gathered at 100 second intervals on three axis (x, y, and z)], written to a comma separated values (CSV) file for a period of five minutes, and sent via cell phone to a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) server where it is validated, stored, and sent to weather analysts in five locations throughout the U.S. The Android-based smartphone was also designed to take photos of the road manually or via a web portal designed to track vehicles in use and potentially send messages to drivers through the phone. These photos were also uploaded to the UMTRI server and sent to the weather analysts throughout the U.S. Over a period of 17 months, the project saw tremendous change in every part of the process including changing nearly half of the project vehicles, re-writing DataProbe source code, changing hardware, and changing the process for working with drivers and updating software. The project resulted in the delivery of 172 gigabytes of valid data representing 196,204 valid files transferred to weather analysts, with MDOT operators driving nearly 400,000 miles and taking 44,594 photos. The IMO 2.0 project has been extended to accommodate an IMO 2.0 demonstration at the 2014 ITS World Congress – Detroit in September to demonstrate how the IMO 2.0 data can be used for traveler information in the form of motorist advisory warnings posted to dynamic message signs and the MDOT MiDrive website. Project completion for this phase is November, 2015.