HALI_Berlin project optimises police and fire brigade operations
Despite flashing blue lights, crossing junctions often costs police and fire services a lot of time and harbours a high risk of accidents. The HALI_Berlin project of the DLR Institute of Transportation Systems and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS therefore sees its task as getting the emergency services to their destination more quickly and safely. The solution of those involved in the project is the targeted activation of traffic lights for emergency vehicles so that they can cross junctions when the signal is green.
Road testing begins
From now on, three police vehicles and two fire engines in Berlin will be testing the traffic light control system specially developed for them for two months. The project participants have equipped all vehicles with a satellite receiver that can use the cryptographically protected Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS) navigation service. The researchers have also equipped eight traffic lights in Berlin's Moabit district with special communication technology. This allows the vehicles to "report" to the traffic lights when they are approaching. These then automatically switch to green so that the emergency vehicle can cross the junction at a higher speed. The crossing traffic has to stop at the red light. This reduces the risk of accidents.
The researchers expect the test drives to provide insights into how robust the Galileo receivers are and how well the traffic light control works in practice. They will evaluate how precise the vehicle localisation is in the day-to-day operations of the police and fire brigade, whether the traffic lights are signalled and cancelled at the desired time and how the HALI system affects the driving times of the emergency services and other road users. As a result of the test run, the technology should be optimised to such an extent that it can also be transferred to other emergency vehicles and traffic light systems.
Linked data ensures precise traffic light control
Those involved in HALI-Berlin have not only developed a special receiver, but also a backend in which the data from the emergency vehicles (e.g. position and speed) is coupled with the information on the location and traffic situation. This central HALI server can then use all the data to adjust the switching of the nearest traffic lights with pinpoint accuracy. For communication from the emergency vehicle to the traffic lights and to the server, the project uses the Galileo-PRS navigation service, which is protected against misuse by high-performance encryption. In addition, by using different frequencies, the service also prevents the navigation signals from being interrupted or covered by a source of interference and can determine the exact position of the vehicle in difficult environments such as urban canyons.
