Three DENSO Corp. engineers won the 2006 Trevor O. Jones Outstanding Paper Award, presented during the Convergence Transportation Electronics Association (CTEA) banquet recently.
The paper, "Wireless Communications for Vehicle Safety: Radio Link Performance and Wireless Connectivity Methods," was authored by Brian Gallagher and Hidehiko Akatsuka, of DENSO International America Inc., and Hideaki Suzuki, of DENSO Corp.
Gallagher, the principal writer, presented the paper at Convergence during technical sessions on Oct. 17. The authors will share $10,000 in prize money. In addition, each will receive a medal and certificate.
Currently, autonomous vehicle safety sensors such as vision cameras and on-vehicle radars can detect when the vehicle is about to steer outside its lane or when it is approaching another vehicle traveling much slower.
But these systems generally require "line-of-sight" environments and cannot see crossing cars at intersections or disabled vehicles around blind corners, for example, that can present hazards for drivers.
DENSO's award-winning paper delves into the potential of wireless systems to extend this sensor range through non-line-of-sight radio communications that can broadcast the presence, speed, direction and location of other similarly equipped vehicles, thereby expanding the horizon of awareness for the drivers, and provide earlier detection of potentially hazardous driving situations.
"DENSO has built and tested such technology to assess the effectiveness of such systems in real-world scenarios," says Doug Patton, senior vice president of marketing and engineering at DENSO International America. "DENSO has also provided data regarding tested countermeasures and ideas for improvement of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications systems."
The CTEA's highest award recognizes authors who write the most outstanding paper on the subject of transportation electronics for the biennial Convergence conference.
