Connected & Autonomous Vehicle Program Resources

Local Projects Around the Central Florida Area

ATCMTD

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) applied for the grant in collaboration with MetroPlan Orlando and UCF. The funds came from the FHWA Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment (ATCMTD) grant program, which funds cutting-edge technologies that are ready to be deployed to enhance existing traffic capacity for commuters and businesses.  For more information on the ATCMTD Grant, click here.

PedSafe

PedSafe is an innovative pedestrian and bicycle collision avoidance system being designed by FDOT. Drivers will be alerted when a pedestrian or cyclist is in the area.  Also, traffic signals will be designed to become aware of pedestrians crossing the road. PedSafe will connect advanced signal controller capability, use Connected Vehicle technologies, and existing communication capabilities to reduce the occurrence of pedestrian and bicycle crashes. The application will be easily transferable throughout the country. This system will also be tested in the Pine Hills, a community that has faced significant challenges with pedestrian safety.





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SR 434 CV Pilot

The Florida Department of Transporation (FDOT) DISTRICT 5 is working on the SR 434 CV PILOT. This project is located in Seminole County, north of the University of Central Florida (UCF) on SR 434, from north of McCulloch Road to east Mitchell Hammock Road. This Connected Vehicle pilot serves as a starting point for the PedSafe Greenway Deployment Project. This project will include Connected Vehicle technologies (DSRC, RSU, OBU) with CV applications like Pre-emption, Transit Priority Signal, Signal Performance Metrics and Signal Phasing and Timing, as well as others.

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I-75 FRAME

The I-75 FRAME (Florida's Regional Advanced Mobility Elements) project is located on the I-75 and US 301/441 corridors, connecting east-west arterials between these two corridors. The purpose of this project is to reroute the I-75 traffic during emergencies and incident managements to US 301/441 using east to west arterials as SR 500, SR 200 and SR 40. These efforts are part of the 2016 Central Office ATCMTD application to lessen the recurring and non-recurring congestion on I-75 between Gainesville and Wildwood/Ocala region. The project length comprises of FDOT Districts 2 and 5 jurisdictions where the northern and southern areas of this regional effort are located. Each District will lead the efforts of their areas which will deploy CV Technologies to better manage, operate, and maintain the multi-modal system and create an integrated corridor management solution. This includes the deployment of Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measures (ATSPM); RSUs and on-board units (OBUs); transit signal priority (TSP); pedestrian safety elements, and adding fiber optic cable on US 301/441 gaps. The goal of the project is to disseminate real-time information to the motorists during freeway incidents.  To access the 2016 ATCMTD Grant Application click here.





FRAME CV Testing

Since CV/AV technology is a new and rapidly evolving, and design standards and specifications are under development, a three-phased testing plan for the FRAME project is currently underway. Those three phases are signal shop (lab) testing, TERL testing, and on-site testing. District Five has recently undergone the lab testing component. The goal of this test was to evaluate communication between devices (primarily conversion of NTCIP to SAE J3725) and compatibility with existing infrastructure to ensure interoperability of applications across the District.   In a lab environment, the various RSUs and OBUs were tested to determine if full end-to-end communication such as basic safety messages (BSMs), map messages (MAP), and signal phasing and timing (SPaT) data were being transmitted and received successfully.  The lab setup included four (4) controller manufacturers, seven (7) RSU manufacturers, and five (5) OBU manufacturers devices. 

Lab tours and presentations were conducted with the goal of providing attendees with an opportunity to see the first phase of the signal shop testing in person.  To access a copy of the presentation, click here.

With the lab testing phase completed, field testing is currently being scheduled. This would involve mounting the RSUs at viable intersections given the various controller types available by county.  Field tests will include the testing of the various messages described above with the addition of emergency vehicle pre-emption (EVP) as well as TSP. Checks and balances will be validated to ensure that the equipment works within a "live" environment.



 

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FUTURe CITy Initiative

The FUTURe CITy (Fostering Smart Urban Transformation and Ubiquitous Resilience with Connected Infrastructure and Technology) initiative at UCF is a group of researchers who have a vision to synergistically explore the wide-ranging technological advances in the service of urban residents. This initiative will provide a blue print to urban policy makers to optimally allocate limited resources while meeting sustainability and resilience goals and promoting social justice, equity, and fairness. Areas of interest of this initiative include Smart Transportation, Smart Infrastructure Systems, Smart Disaster Management, Smart Inter-disciplinary Techniques, Smart Water/Waste Water Management, Smart Health, Smart Tourism, Smart Policies, and Smart Geotechnics. For more information, click here.





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UCF Test Bed

The Florida Department of Transportation District 5, City of Orlando and the University of Central Florida (UCF) have committed to the construction of testing grounds in and around the east Orlando area of the UCF main campus. This effort is rooted in a regionwide emphasis around USDOT's Smart Cities initiative, which focuses on ways to use technology to improve quality of life. The SmartCommunity site, rich with multimodal traffic demand, is being developed to test integrated solutions to connect people to the places and services that they need. Anticipated features include a 38-signal testbed of connected infrastructure equipped with ATC controllers, DSRC radios, passive pedestrian detection, CCTV, in-pavement sensors, automated shuttle service and mobility kiosks. Additionally, UCF is home to the Institute for Simulation and Technology (IST), the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory component of IST, is a critical component in both the CV environment and autonomous advancement from Level 2 to Level 5 technologies. These features combined with integrated data collection will provide a proving ground for CV applications, AV integration to mixed traffic, Advanced parking management strategies and Mobility on Demand framework. Areas of research include safety, advanced parking management, data management, mobility on demand, OBU emulation, and human machine interface.



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Colonial Parkway

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise has recently started the Colonial Parkway Project Development and Environment (PD&E) Study. The study limits are along State Road 50 (SR 50), also known as East Colonial Drive, from Woodbury Road (near SR 408) to SR 520, approximately 7 miles in length in eastern Orange County, Florida. Building on previous studies, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise initiated this PD&E study in September 2017 to develop new alternatives to meet the future mobility needs along the existing SR 50 corridor. This study will consider connected and autonomous vehicles technologies. Autonomous or self-driving vehicles are projected to provide significant safety benefits including up to 80% reduction in vehicle accidents. For more information on this study, click here.



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