Low Ground Clearance Vehicle Detection and Warning System

Highway‐rail grade crossings, at which there is an abrupt change in the level of the road surface as it crosses the tracks, present a severe hang‐up risk to vehicles with low ground clearance. In Phase I, ATR developed a conceptual design for a Low Ground Clearance Vehicle Detection System (LGCVDS) to actively prevent such accidents. The LGCVDS functions by measuring vehicles on approach to the crossing, detecting those with insufficient ground clearance, and triggering wayside active warning indicators to alert the driver with sufficient time and distance to stop. Phase II presents the opportunity to evolve the LGCVDS concept and demonstrate it as an effective and reliable system. To successfully monitor and protect vehicles at real‐world grade crossings, the system needs to handle a wide range of vehicle types and speeds. It must be robust to adverse visibility conditions including heavy snow, rain, fog, or darkness. The keys to a deployable system will be the selection of a reliable and capable sensor and the implementation of more advanced tracking and profiling algorithms to process sensor data. Testing a completed demo system with diverse vehicles and environmental conditions will be important for quantifying system reliability.