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More than 44% of all automotive crashes occur in intersections. These incidents in intersections result in more than 8,500 fatalities and approximately 1 million injuries each year in USA. It is also established that roundabouts are safer than junctions. According to a USDOT study, when compared with the junctions they replaced, roundabouts have 40% fewer vehicle collisions, 80% fewer injuries and 90% fewer serious injuries and fatalities. In earlier work, we have proposed a family of vehicular network protocols, which use Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) and Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) technologies to coordinate a vehicle's movement through intersections. We have shown that vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications can be used to avoid collisions at the intersection and also significantly decrease the trip delays introduced by traffic lights and stop signs.

Vehicle inspection in repair shops is often still based on paper forms. Information Technology (IT) does not yet support the entire inspection process. In this paper, we introduce a small wearable IT device that is controlled by speech and enables service technicians to wirelessly access relevant data and to perform on-site communication. Users can carry this device in a pocket and use a small headset to enter speech and receive audio feedback. This system provides a completely speech-enabled functionality and thus offers a hands-free operation. After showing the applicability of wearable computers in this environment, we developed a proprietary hardware system consisting of a thin-client connected via a Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) link to a standard Personal Computer (PC) that runs a speech engine and hosts a database. Several field tests in garages helped us during the evolution of our prototypes where service technicians critiqued the prototypes.

Research in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has been increasingly focussed on the development of Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS). A CAS would reduce the incidence of collisions by providing warnings to the driver to take evasive action. Because single vehicle roadway departures, also known as Run-off-Road (ROR) events, are a cause of a significant portion of vehicle accidents and fatalities, an effective CAS for ROR can potentially improve highway safety dramatically. The development of performance specifications for CAS for ROR events is a part of an ongoing three-phase program for NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). This paper focusses on the development and application of a powerful simulation tool, RORSIM, for CAS assessments over a wide range of environmental, roadway, driver, vehicle and CAS operating conditions. The results of CAS effectiveness studies are presented.

The Lunar Rover Initiative (LRI) is producing technological and programmatic steps toward a commercial robotic expedition on the Moon at the turn of the millennium. Two teleoperated rovers will commemorate Apollo Era lunar landings by revisiting the historic sites of Apollo 11, Surveyor 5, Ranger 8, Apollo 17 and Lunokhod 2 during a two year, 2000km trek. Millions will experience lunar exploration through continuous live display of high quality video images and sensor telemetry at theme parks, research organizations, television networks and science centers worldwide. In addition, the public will drive the rovers during the traverse. In June, 1997 a terrestrial prototype will demonstrate key robotic technologies of safeguarded navigation, locomotion in barren terrain and system reliability in a sixty day, 250km desert traverse. The technologies matured in this effort and lessons learnt will be incorporated into future flight articles.