ETSI-Compliant Protection of Connected Vulnerable Road Users: Simulation and Field Trial

According to the latest statistics, a consistent share of road accidents involves Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). This calls for the adoption of urgent measures to guarantee their safety while sharing the road with other vehicles. Thanks to the technological advantages of wireless networks, Vehicle-to-Everything communication (V2X) have been proposed as a solution to improve not only the safety, but also the environmental impact and effectiveness of road transport systems. To this aim, the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) has defined a set of standards dedicated to VRUs, with the definition of the so-called VRU Basic Service (VBS) defining a dedicated V2X message (VAM, VRU Awareness Message) and several rules for the transmission of such messages. This work proposes an open implementation of the VBS, aimed at evaluating V2X scenarios with connected VRUs. Our implementation targets both simulations and field tests, and has been used to extensively assess the effectiveness and the critical points of the VBS. Our work also explores advanced features like proximity triggering and redundancy mitigation, under different simulated and real-world scenarios, thanks to a setup with a connected vehicle and an equipped stroller.