Deployment of Fiber-Optic Lane Use Indication Signs Using a Distributed Control Architecture |
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| Authors: | Darcy Bullock,Arthur Harvey,& Carroll Messer |
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| Affiliation: | School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA,;Remote Sensing and Image Processing Laboratory, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA,;Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, Texas, USA |
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| Abstract: | This article reviews the basic signing technologies available to the traffic engineer for dynamically changing sign displays. An example installation of dynamic lane assignment in Houston, Texas, is reviewed and referenced as the motivation for developing a simple traffic signal cabinet interface for dynamic lane assignment signs. The failure modes of these dynamic lane assignment signs are identified so that suitable control models can be selected. Various candidate control architectures are summarized, and a distributed control model is recommended because of the simple cabinet retrofit and the inherent malfunction management capabilities. The article concludes by describing the distributed computing design comprised of the sign-control interface (SCI) residing in the cabinet and the sign-control modules (SCM) residing in each sign. Photographs of the SCI and SCM prototypes are included. |
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