Date of Award

12-2017

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Civil and Construction Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Jun-Seok Oh

Second Advisor

Dr. Valerian Kwigizile

Third Advisor

Dr. Ala Al-Fuqaha

Keywords

Smart-Cane, blind pedestrians, connected vehicles, pedestrian safety, smart cities

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Visually impaired pedestrians have limited mobility options, where they rely heavily on walking and transit for their transportation needs. One of the major issues facing these pedestrians is intersection crossing. Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS), as a means of helping their intersection crossings, were introduced in the United States as early as 1920 but were not included in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Device (MUTCD) until 2000. The most recent type of APS is the beaconing APS which has shown improvements in road crossing abilities of blind pedestrians though it has many downsides to it. This study developed a cane to enhance safety and crossing abilities of visually impaired pedestrians at wide and complex intersections. The cane, named Smart-Cane, is composed of three subsystems: the veering adjustment system using RFID technology where device-to-infrastructure (D2I) communication is established; driver alert system through the cloud (LTE) where device-to-vehicle (D2V) communication is established and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication through DSRC is established; and the green time system where connection is established through WiFi with the signal controller and device-to-infrastructure (D2I) communication is established. Three scenarios (A, B & C) were proposed to study the improvements of the Smart-Cane over APS. Findings state that the Smart-Cane proved feasibility and practicability over APS.

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