Iranian Researchers Produce Smart Road Studs
Two Iranian researchers Aram Ghafouri and Shahram Ghafouri from the Western province of Kordestan won the silver medal of the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva with the "Smart road studs" design.
The device was designed and produced to make the roads smarter to reduce road accidents and also to minimize the damage caused by road-related dangers for the environment.
“One of the technical problems on roads and streets that causes accidents is the lack of sufficient visibility for drivers due to factors such as fog, snow, rain, road bends, tunnels, high speed on highways, natural obstacles such as rocks, trees, humans, crossing wild and domestic animals. , fire, etc,” Aram Ghafouri told Iranian media about their invention.
“To resolve this challenge, we managed to design and produce a smart road stud with the capability to detect the situation in which the cars and the road are. This device is capable of detecting moving or stopped cars on the roads, as well as open or blocked roads due to rockfall or fire,” he added.
Ghafouri also pointed to the detection of the presence of domestic or wild animals on the road surface as one of the other capabilities of the smart studs, adding, “As soon as this tool receives information from the road surface, it warns passing drivers by sending visual signals through lights. These warning signs are sent from a range a hundred meters to several kilometers before the driver arrives at the scene of the accident.”
Stating that the system can be installed at different roads, the researcher added that it works with the help of microcontroller, sensors and lights and wireless communication.
Emphasizing that smart studs have three indicator lights, he elaborated more, “Each of them (the lights) has the ability to change its color to three warning colors: green, yellow and red and in two modes, flashing and steady. Also, on the left and right sides of this system, there are two infrared motion sensors and two ultrasonic distance sensors. They are fueled by solar panels as their source of energy.”
“These smart studs are designed in a way that when the vehicles’ tires press them, they go as down as the road surface the car and the stud do not get damaged. Using a spring under these studs, that capability is given to the smart stud,” he added.
As regards fire warning capability, the researcher added, "As soon as the ambient temperature rises above predetermined level in the thermometer sensor of these studs, the lights turn red for all crossing lines located in the danger zone as a warning. Also, this command is sent to other smart studs through a radio transmitter."
According to him, through smart studs that receive the message, the command to change the color of the traffic lights from any state to a fixed red state will be issued for all lanes in the danger zone.
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