ETSI experts complete specifications for Vulnerable Road Users
Sophia Antipolis, 24 November 2020
A group of experts in ETSI TC ITS, the committee in charge of Intelligent Transport Systems, has just completed a set of three standards related to Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) protection with the specification ETSI TS 103 300-3. This standard defines the VRU awareness service together with its key interfaces and protocols as well as the VRU awareness message (VAM) format, semantics and syntax. The specification completes the Technical Report, ETSI TR 103 300-1 on use cases and the Technical specification, ETSI TS 103 300-2, addressing the functional architecture and requirements for VRU. The development of the standards included stakeholders from around the world and received a large set of contributions from representatives working on different types of vulnerable road users, for example bicycles and motorcycles.
An integral part of road ITS are the class of vulnerable road users including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and animals, which may also be divided into different size sub-classes. In order to efficiently participate in the road safety related ITS communication, a continuous repeated awareness message is transmitted by these vulnerable road users using the VAM. The construction, management and processing of VAMs is done by the Vulnerable Road Users basic service (VRU basic service). Leveraging on the selected use cases, the standard provides a thorough security and privacy analysis, as well as a roadmap for VRU protection, to overcome the near-future challenges in terms of high positioning accuracy and battery consumption of personal devices. VRU's behaviour on the road is less predictable than vehicles such as cars or trucks. The VAM contains a motion prediction set of parameters to complete the information traditionally exchanged in C-ITS.
Cooperative awareness within road traffic means that road users and roadside infrastructure are informed about each other's position, dynamics and attributes. The awareness of each other is the basis for C-ITS road safety and traffic efficiency applications. It is achieved by regular exchange of information among vehicles, pedestrians and road-side infrastructure based on wireless networks, called V2X network, and as such it can be considered part of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).