Development of ATMA/AIPV Deployment Guidelines Considering Traffic and Safety Impacts

Autonomous Truck Mounted Attenuator/Impact Protection Vehicle (ATMA/AIPV) is a quickly emerging technology and is expected to bring considerable potentials in transportation infrastructure maintenance by removing drivers from the risk. The system includes a lead truck (LT), a follow truck (FT), a truck mounted attenuator (TMA) installed on the FT, and a leader-follower system that enables the FT to drive autonomously and follow the LT. While exciting technology is being developed and shows promising benefits in roadway maintenance, what’s not well studied is the impacts of such autonomous system to traffic operation and roadway safety, and subsequently how should DOT develop deployment strategies with those aspects taken into consideration.

This project will produce open source software tool for the state DOT to deploy the ATMA system. No further technology implementation is applicable to this project.

This project aims to study the associated critical research questions, and in the end develop a practical software tool that takes in DOT inputs such as roadway network GIS shapefile, traffic counts and ATMA/AIPV system characteristics, and outputs a set of recommended deployment strategies, including the roadway maintenance sequence, staffing plan and needed resource, potential impacts to the traffic network and any suggested traffic management plan to ensure a smooth and safe traffic flow while effectively maintaining the roadway facilities.

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