InterchangeSE: Highway R&D Program

In collaboration with Iowa State University, BANC3 designed and developed InterchangeSE, a federated multimodal simulation environment, as a new means of studying interactions among several stakeholders representing different decision perspectives in a partially connected-automated multimodal transportation system. InterchangeSE allows complex simulated scenarios involving live and virtual participants to be initialized and run. Its features include: multiplayer interactions, representation of different decision perspectives and dynamically changing scenarios, different levels of immersion, and interactions with real-world performance monitoring. InterchangeSE was developed based on existing virtual reality/augmented reality technologies and software architecture with connectivity and communications between independent hardware and software components. This project enhances the system architecture with built-in fault tolerance and integration with a performance monitoring system. The platform demonstrates inclusion of future technologies such as wearable textile stress biosensors and a head-mounted augmented reality display. This $1.5 million research and development project was partially funded by the Federal Highway Administration.

In support of this project, BANC3 developed head-mounted AR displays for construction workers. Augmented reality (AR) revolutionizes the transportation industry and significantly changes the transmittal and ingestion of information in different modes of transportation by providing just-in-time, heads-up, and hands-free interactions. This led to improved efficiency and safety in transportation. As an example, an optical see-through head-mounted display (HMD) can be life saving for construction workers in a connected world. The leading cause of construction worker fatalities involves collisions with construction vehicles. In a connected world, these incidents could be avoided with AR helmets that warn workers before an impending collision without distracting them from the job at hand.