Emergency Vehicle Aid using Cellular and GNSS Technologies - A Review

Vehicular traffic is increasing at unprecedented rates in India, causing inconvenient traffic congestion at intersections. Generally, more traffic is observed in the pre-noon hours (0700 -1100) and in the evenings. Vehicles of Law Enforcement, Fire Department, and Hospitals that render emergency services ensure public safety and health by addressing varied emergencies around the clock. Hence, they act as lifelines and should have the highest priority when dealing with obstructions on roads. But in metropolitan cities, ambulances usually get stuck in traffic stops due to congestion. Their motion is easy in the night, but in the day hours they get stuck in traffic. The prime cause of this is the obstructing vehicles’ unawareness of the relative position of the ambulance. Although there has been a significant improvement in road quality, there has not been proportionate technological development and implementation in vehicular communication that would aid the movement of emergency vehicles. This paper provides a review of different methods used to reduce the time spent by Emergency Vehicles (EmV) during transit, and then this research study proposes a novel idea to build a system in which vehicles that are in the path of EmV are alerted of the EmV, so that they can act accordingly letting the EmV move ahead even in traffic.