Roadside range sensors for intersection decision support

We are developing an "intersection decision support" (IDS) system to assist drivers with decision-making at unsignalized rural intersections. When deployed, the system provides to a driver stopped at a minor road, information related to the safety of entering or crossing the mainline road traffic stream. The system uses surveillance sensors alongside the major road to determine the state of the intersection, and this state information is used to determine whether the gaps that exist are unsafe, thereby triggering a warning to the stopped driver not to initiate the desired maneuver. Low cost automotive radar forms the basis of the surveillance system. This paper presents a performance evaluation of an Eaton-Vorad EVT-300 radar used as a fixed-base sensor for an IDS system. This evaluation documents the sensor's coverage of the lanes, its lane classification ability and its accuracy at tracking speed as a function of the unit's orientation to the road. High accuracy (5 cm) DGPS is used to validate all radar measurements.