Texas Southern University researchers
help improve urban traffic and air quality
issues
From Staff Reports
The Department of Transportation Studies in
the College of Science and Technology at
Texas Southern University (TSU) selected
DriveSafety’s DS-600c with QMotion (tm) as a
research tool to help improve urban traffic
and air quality issues.
“On a daily basis, we see the problems
caused by excessive congestion on our
roadways,” said Dr. Lei Yu, Chair of
Transportation Studies. “TSU is providing
valuable research in improving urban traffic
flow and the pollution associated with urban
transportation.”
“DriveSafety is pleased it can work with
Texas Southern University in providing them
an effective research tool to help them
address urban transportation problems,” said
Bill Woahn, President and CEO of DriveSafety.
TSU Transportation Studies Research Plans
The Urban Traffic and Air Quality Lab (UTAQL)
at Texas Southern University conducts
advanced researches on seeking optimal
solutions to various urban traffic and air
quality problems. The research focus of
UTAQL include: traffic operation, ITS,
freight impacts, law enforcement,
transportation, safety and air quality.
In the future, UTAQL has plans to do
transportation safety research on the
applications of new and emerging
technologies including:
-
Vehicle infrastructure integration (VII)
based road-condition warning system for
highway collision prevention.
-
Enhance microscopic traffic simulation
models for traffic safety assessment.
-
Evaluate the safety impacts of advanced
work zone control technologies.
DS-600c Simulator
The DriveSafety DS-600c simulator, a
simulation system research studies have
shown to effectively approximate driving in
the real world, is a fully integrated, high
performance, high fidelity driving
simulation system designed for use in ground
vehicle research, training and assessment
applications. The DS-600c eliminates the
overhead associated with maintaining a
dedicated programming or operations support
staff. Never before has ground vehicle
simulation been this affordable and
accessible to domain knowledge experts.
Coupling the DS-600c hardware with the
industry’s most advanced real-time
simulation software – Vection (tm) – and
driving scenario creation software –
HyperDrive Authoring Suite (tm) –
subject-matter experts are able to customize
the DS-600c to help them accomplish their
specific goals. Researchers, educators and
driving assessment professionals create
their purpose-built driving scenarios by
leveraging DriveSafety’s extensive library
of roads, intersections, vehicles, traffic
patterns and landscapes, plus the ability to
script specific actions and to collect the
desired data.
The DS-600c provides multi-channel
audio/visual systems, 180°, 240°, 300°, 360°
wraparound display options, full-width
automobile cab including windshield, driver
and passenger seats, center console and
dash, full instrumentation, control loaded
steering, braking and acceleration, mini-LCD
rear-view mirrors, plus real-time motion
simulation through DriveSafety’s Q-Motion
(tm) platform.
Simulation Benefits
The DS-600c driving simulator is a valuable
assess for TSU. It allows them to pursue
research opportunities in key areas
including:
-
The assessment of Intelligent
Transportation System (ITS) concepts
-
Driver preference and acceptance
research
-
Accident analysis and development of
crash avoidance counter-measures
-
Design and evaluation of automotive products
and technologies.
-
Evaluation and analysis of driving
behavior in evacuation scenarios
The simulator will significantly increase
TSU’s chance of being successful in its
research goals. In addition, the simulator
will benefit TSU’s teaching activities in
various transportation courses. The students
in TSU will gain hands-on experience by
using this advanced driving simulation
equipment. They will learn to use
DriveSafety’s HyperDrive Authoring Suite
(tm) for creating custom driving scenarios.
Furthermore, the DriveSafety simulator
provides a greater draw to prospective
students especially to TSU’s graduate
programs.
About Texas Southern University
Texas Southern University (TSU) in Houston
was established in 1947 with a current
enrollment of more than 11,000 students. As
a state-assisted higher educational
institution, TSU is the second largest
historically black college or university (HBCU)
in the U.S. The Department of Transportation
Studies in the College of Science and
Technology offers a Bachelor degree in
Aviation Science and a Masters degree in
Transportation Planning and Management.
Currently, the Department has an enrollment
of about 100 students with concentrations in
transportation systems design and analysis,
operations, planning and management.
090506.TSU
