A Low-Cost Mobile Proximity Warning System in Highway Work Zone

Advances in sensing and equipment control technology and their integrated combinations can be considered to be an opportunity to assist construction personnel in avoiding accidents, especially hazardous proximity incidents. Supported by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), the Robotics & Intelligent Construction Automation Laboratory (RICAL) at Georgia Tech has performed a project under Transportation Research Board (TRB)’s Highway Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Program to evaluate sensing technologies for active work zone safety. A Bluetooth proximity sensing system was developed with customized software and tested with other commercially available sensing devices at GDOT’s equipment maintenance yards. From the test, the system performance was evaluated in real-world situations, and promising test results with positive comments were obtained from the workers who participated in the test. Details are documented in this final report for TRB’s IDEA Program Project 187.