Smart signs could improve work-zone safety for flaggers

Work-zone traffic control is one of the country’s most dangerous jobs, and flaggers are often the first line of defense against distracted, inattentive, or aggressive motorists. U of M researchers are working to develop new, cost-effective “smart sign” technology to help make these jobs safer. The systems track the trajectory of vehicles approaching a work zone, alert drivers to slow or stop, and warn workers of an unsafe intrusion into the work zone. 

While other digital smart signs for work zones have been developed, they’ve had varying levels of success due to operational complexities, cumbersome size, and prohibitive cost, says Nichole Morris, director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s HumanFIRST Laboratory and the project’s principal investigator. “Our goal was developing an affordable, portable intrusion detection system.”

The project was sponsored by the Minnesota Local Road Research Board. Professor Rajesh Rajamani of the Department of Mechanical Engineering was the co-investigator.

Researchers began by developing a proposed system that would meet their technical aims. These included accurate threat detection (to reduce risks of both missed detections and false alarms) and low cost (to afford greater opportunity to scale the system across multiple work zones and support a greater number of workers).

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