Engineering Commons^™

Policy Brief: Evaluation Of The Safety Of Pedestrian Crossing Treatments In Small And Rural Communities, Parsa Pezeshknejad, Dana Rowangould, James Sullivan

University of Vermont Transportation Research Center

TRC Policy Brief: Rural areas often lack adequate pedestrian infrastructure, resulting in elevated safety risks for pedestrians. The combination of higher speed limits and reduced driver awareness amplifies the potential for pedestrian collisions when crossing the roadway.

This study addresses uncertainty about the effectiveness of rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs) and LED-embedded signs (LESs) as potential safety interventions. RRFBs and LESs are both pedestrian crossing treatments that allow pedestrians to activate lights to alert drivers of their intent to cross. RRFBs include horizontal LED lights mounted to the sign pole, while LESs include LEDs embedded in the edge of the …

Digital Challenges And Opportunities Of Addressing On-Site Productivity And Safety On Construction Job Sites: An International Perspective, Ahmed Hassan, Ankur Mitra, Mark Mulville, Alan Hore

Conference papers

The slow pace of digital transformation in construction remains an impediment to the industry’s evolution. Despite rapid developments in digital technologies, the vast bulk of data generated on construction job sites remains underutilised due to the limited use of real-time data capture. The diffusion of digital solutions in construction depends on successfully capturing critical real-time data that can inform and contribute to more productive work patterns and safer job sites. Nevertheless, the construction industry’s fragmented nature has segregated the digital solutions offered by technology providers from the volatile challenges facing on-site construction practitioners.

This paper will present the early development …

Inventory, Operations, And Safety At Free Right-Turn Ramps, Aemal Khattak, Jonathon Camezind, Mm Shakui Haque

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This research focused on traffic safety and operational performance of rural, minor approach stop-controlled intersections with free right-turn (FRT) ramps. The objectives of the research were to:

• Create a statewide inventory of rural FRT ramp intersections and provide to the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT),
• Using NDOT 10-year crash data, conduct statistical safety analysis of rural FRT intersections extending ¼-mile in each direction from the intersection,
• Study vehicular operations at rural intersections with and without FRT ramps including a comparison of vehicular conflicts, and
• Develop guidelines for operations and safety tradeoffs to assist with NDOT projects on maintaining similar locations, …

Dsrc Versus Lte-V2x: Empirical Performance Analysis Of Direct Vehicular Communication Technologies, Ehsan Moradi-Pari, Danyang Tian, Mojtaba Bahramgiri, Samer Rajab, Sue Bai

Michigan Tech Publications

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication systems have an eminence potential to improve road safety and optimize traffic flow by broadcasting Basic Safety Messages (BSMs). Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) and LTE Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) are two candidate technologies to enable V2V communication. DSRC relies on the IEEE 802.11p standard for its PHY and MAC layer while LTE-V2X is based on 3GPP’s Release 14 and operates in a distributed manner in the absence of cellular infrastructure. There has been considerable debate over the relative advantages and disadvantages of DSRC and LTE-V2X, aiming to answer the fundamental question of which technology is most effective in real-world …

Proposal For And Validation Of Novel Risk-Based Process To Reduce The Risk Of Construction Site Fatalities (Major Accident Prevention (Map) Program), Roberta Selleck, Marcus Cattani, Maureen Hassall

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Despite developments in the prevention of fatalities in the construction industry, fatalities resulting from well-known hazards continue at an unacceptable rate. Construction fatality prevention literature describes risk management techniques to provide ‘early warning’ of potential events. In dynamic construction project environments, these ‘early warnings’ are missed resulting in serious and fatal events. Critical Control Risk Management (CCRM) provides an alternative strategy to prevent fatal events in the construction industry. However, no research exists that explores the application of CCRM to actual construction projects. This study aims to design, develop, and validate a construction fatality prevention program using CCRM principles through …

Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Exploratory Cyber-Physical Safety Analyzer Framework For Civilian Urban Air Mobility, Md. Shirajum Munir, Sumit Howlader Dipro, Kamrul Hasan, Tariqul Islam, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

Urban air mobility (UAM) has become a potential candidate for civilization for serving smart citizens, such as through delivery, surveillance, and air taxis. However, safety concerns have grown since commercial UAM uses a publicly available communication infrastructure that enhances the risk of jamming and spoofing attacks to steal or crash crafts in UAM. To protect commercial UAM from cyberattacks and theft, this work proposes an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled exploratory cyber-physical safety analyzer framework. The proposed framework devises supervised learning-based AI schemes such as decision tree, random forests, logistic regression, K-nearest neighbors (KNN), and long short-term memory (LSTM) for predicting and …

Optimizing Human Performance To Enhance Safety: A Case Study In An Automotive Plant, Maria Chiara Leva, Michaela Demichela, Carlos Albarran Morillo, Franco Modaffari, Lorenzo Comberti

Articles

Human factors play a relevant role in the dynamic work environments of the manufacturing sector in terms of production efficiency, safety, and sustainable performance. This is particularly relevant in assembly lines where humans are widely employed alongside automated and robotic agents. In this situation, operators’ ability to adapt to different levels of task complexity and variability in each workstation has a strong impact on the safety, reliability, and efficiency of the overall production process. This paper presents an application of a theoretical and empirical method used to assess the matching of different workers to various workstations based on a quantified …

Continual Reinforcement Learning Formulation For Zero-Sum Game-Based Constrained Optimal Tracking, Behzad Farzanegan, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study provides a novel reinforcement learning-based optimal tracking control of partially uncertain nonlinear discrete-time (DT) systems with state constraints using zero-sum game (ZSG) formulation. To address optimal tracking, a novel augmented system consisting of tracking error and its integral value, along with an uncertain desired trajectory, is constructed. A barrier function (BF) with a tradeoff factor is incorporated into the cost function to keep the state trajectories to remain within a compact set and to balance safety with optimality. Next, by using the modified value functional, the ZSG formulation is introduced wherein an actor–critic neural network (NN) framework is …

The Impact Of Various Safety Leadership Styles On Construction Safety Climate: A Case Of South India, S. Senthamizh Sankar, K. S. Anandh, Sathyanarayanan Rajendran, K. N. Sen

Engineering Technologies, Safety, and Construction Faculty Scholarship

The Indian construction industry is the second-largest job-providing sector in the country, which comprises many investments. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) report, India is a significant contributor to construction site accidents and fatalities among world nations. The poor Safety Leadership (SL) style and the diminished leader's commitment to quality safety outcomes have caused misfortunes in construction sites. This paper aims to identify the impact of various safety leadership styles on the Organisational Safety Climate (OSC) predictors and propose a conceptual model explaining the relationship between SL styles and OSC. The study identifies six leadership styles from the works …

An Investigation On The Effects Of Psychological Contract (Pc) Towards Site Safety In The South Indian Construction Industry, M. G. Soundarya Priya, K. S. Anandh, Sathyanarayanan Rajendran, K. N. Sen

Engineering Technologies, Safety, and Construction Faculty Scholarship

The construction sector is India's second-largest industry, contributing to the country's economy and providing many job opportunities. However, construction has been described as a hazardous industry with a high rate of injuries, accidents, and fatalities compared to other sectors worldwide. The "psychological contract of safety (PCS)" is one of the safety climate (SC) variables that influence worker safety behavior (WSB) actions on construction sites to improve safety. This research investigates the influence of SC factors on PCS and PCS on WSB in construction site safety. A quantitative research method has been adopted in this study, and the data is collected …

Effect Of Weather Events On Travel Time Reliability And Crash Occurrence, Sonu Mathew, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

The magnitude of the effect of adverse weather conditions on road operational performance varies with the type of weather condition and the road characteristics of the road links and adjacent links. Therefore, the relationship between weather and traffic is always a concern to traffic engineers and planners, and they have extensively explored ways to integrate weather information into transportation systems. Understanding the influence of weather on operational performance and safety helps traffic engineers and planners to proactively plan and manage transportation systems. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the effect of adverse weather conditions on travel time …

Multi-Bsm: An Anomaly Detection And Position Falsification Attack Mitigation Approach In Connected Vehicles, Zouheir Trabelsi, Syed Sarmad Shah, Kadhim Hayawi

All Works

With the dawn of the emerging technologies in the field of vehicular environment, connected vehicles are advancing at a rapid speed. The advancement of such technologies helps people daily, whether it is to reach from one place to another, avoid traffic, or prevent any hazardous incident from occurring. Safety is one of the main concerns regarding the vehicular environment when it comes to developing applications for connected vehicles. Connected vehicles depend on messages known as basic safety messages (BSMs) that are repeatedly broadcast in their communication range in order to obtain information regarding their surroundings. Different kinds of attacks can …

Evaluating Safety And Productivity Relationship In Human-Robot Collaboration, Aayush Jain, Shakra Mehak, Philip Long, John D. Kelleher, Michael Guilfoyle, Maria Chiara Leva

Conference papers

Collaborative robots can improve ergonomics on factory floors while allowing a higher level of flexibility in production. The evolution of robotics and cyber-physical systems in size and functionality has enabled new applications which were never foreseen in traditional industrial robots. However, the current human-robot collaboration (HRC) technologies are limited in reliability and safety, which are vital in risk-critical scenarios. Certainly, confusion about European safety regulations has led to situations where collaborative robots operate behind security barriers, thus negating their advantages while reducing overall application productivity. Despite recent advances, developing a safe collaborative robotic system for performing complex industrial or daily …

Connected Simulation For Work Zone Safety Application, Vahid Balali

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Every year, over 60,000 work zone crashes are reported in the United States (FHWA 2016). Such work zone crashes have resulted in over 4,400 fatal and 200,000 non-fatal injuries in the last 5 years (FHWA 2016, BLS 2014). Apart from the physical and emotional trauma, the annual cost of these injuries exceeds $4 million-representing significant wasted resources. To improve work zone safety, this research developed a system architecture for unveiling high-risk behavioral patterns among highway workers, equipment operators, and drivers within dynamic highway work zones. This research implemented the use of a connected virtual environment, which is an immersive hyper-realistic …

An Agent-Based Framework For Investigating Safety-Productivity Tradeoff Of Construction Laborers Considering Risk-Taking Behavioral Heterogeneity, Ali Khodabandelu, Jee Woong Park, Seyedmohsen Kheyrandish

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Construction laborers and crews play a critical role in achieving a safe and productive construction site. Many past research studies used top-down approaches/perspectives for studying the impact of laborers' performance on overall construction site outputs with limited flexibility in accounting for laborers' various characteristics. However, the recent reap in computational advances allowed applications of bottom-up architectures, which can potentially incorporate heterogeneous characteristics of laborers' individual behavioral and decision-making features effectively. Accordingly, agent-based modeling (ABM), as a tool to leverage a bottom-up methodological approach, has been widely adopted by recent research. Existing literature investigated the influence of changes in laborers' behaviors …

Specialized Safety Training And Tracking For Kytc Construction And Maintenance Personnel, Gabriel Dadi, Ashtarout Ammar, Seth Atkins, Martha Horseman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

High-quality safety training is critical for educating employees in the highway construction and maintenance industry about workplace hazards and giving them tools to remove and/or minimize associated risks. But researchers and state transportation agencies have not committed enough resources to develop safety trainings that address the unique needs of this sector. This report fills in this gap for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) by cataloguing safety training resources available through other state and federal transportation agencies, documenting trainings available to Cabinet staff, identifying and prioritizing training gaps, and critically evaluating the content, quality, and duration of training resources. A web-based …

Triggering Thermal Runaway In Lithium-Ion Batteries, Chris John

Honors Scholar Theses

The proliferation of lithium-ion batteries enables electric devices such as cell phones to electric vehicles to become a reality. A latent danger, however, exists in these batteries. Mechanical, thermal, or electrical damage can initiate a phenomenon known as thermal runaway (TR). This damage causes internal short circuits within the battery, releasing heat and triggering exothermic decomposition reactions. The battery will catch fire if rapid cooling is not present. While experimental designs exist for evaluating TR, significant safety hazards and impracticality may impede testing efforts. Finite element analysis, therefore, becomes a vital tool in modeling TR and mitigation techniques. However, there …

Designing Respectful Tech: What Is Your Relationship With Technology?, Noreen Y. Whysel

Publications and Research

According to research at the Me2B Alliance, people feel they have a relationship with technology. It’s emotional. It’s embodied. And it’s very personal. We are studying digital relationships to answer questions like “Do people have a relationship with technology?” “What does that relationship feel like?” And “Do people understand the commitments that they are making when they explore, enter into and dissolve these relationships?” There are parallels between messy human relationships and the kinds of relationships that people develop with technology. As with human relationships, we move through states of discovery, commitment and breakup with digital applications as well. Technology …

Human Ergonomic Simulation To Support The Design Of An Exoskeleton For Lashing/De-Lashing Operations Of Containers Cargo, Francesco Longo, Antonio Padovano, Vittorio Solina, Virginia D' Augusta, Stefan Venzl, Roberto Calbi, Michele Bartuni, Ornella Anastasi, Rafael Diaz

VMASC Publications

Lashing and de-lashing operations of containers cargo on board containerships are considered as quite strenuous activities in which operators are required to work continuously over a 6 or 8 hours shift with very limited break. This is mostly because containerships need to leave the port as soon as possible and containers loading and unloading operations must be executed with very high productivity (stay moored in a port is a totally unproductive time for a ship and a loss-making business for a shipping company). Operators performing lashing and de-lashing operations are subjected to intense ergonomic stress and uncomfortable working postures. To …

Proknow: Process Knowledge For Safety Constrained And Explainable Question Generation For Mental Health Diagnostic Assistance, Kaushik Roy, Manas Gaur, Misagh Soltani, Vipula Rawte, Ashwin Allen, Amit Sheth

Publications

Virtual Mental Health Assistants (VMHAs) are utilized in health care to provide patient services such as counseling and suggestive care. They are not used for patient diagnostic assistance because they cannot adhere to safety constraints and specialized clinical process knowledge (ProKnow) used to obtain clinical diagnoses. In this work, we define ProKnow as an ordered set of information that maps to evidence-based guidelines or categories of conceptual understanding to experts in a domain. We also introduce a new dataset of diagnostic conversations guided by safety constraints and ProKnow that healthcare professionals use (ProKnow-data). We develop a method for natural language …

“Transport Batteryfication” Analysis Of Pre-Recycling Phases Of End-Of-Life Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries From An Irish Perspective, Matt Mcguinness

Masters

Transport plays a key role in maintaining the economic prosperity of our society. However, transport has remained reliant on fossil fuels, a main contributor to climate change. New EU and Government policies aim to decarbonise the transport sector through batteryfication by shifting to electric vehicles. The lithium-ion battery will underpin this strategy.

Lithium-ion batteries have a limited lifespan for automotive applications, this will bring new and unprecedented challenges for end-of-life waste management. The recent growth of electric vehicles is expected to continue exponentially which raises important questions on how to process this new waste stream.

This study investigates the recycling …

Design Mythbusters, Christopher Van Dyke, Steve Waddle, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

When highway project designs depart from design values found in the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) Highway Design Manual and AASHTO’s A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, project managers at the agency must obtain either a design exception or design variance. While designers are more comfortable with exceptions and variances than they were 10 or 20 years ago, some hesitancy remains, especially among the Cabinet’s consultants. Misperceptions about what exceptions or variances entail or about their performance may underlie this reluctance. Exceptions and variances are best conceptualized as formal justifications for design decisions. Project managers merely need …

The Secret Life Of Stalls, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

FAA Safety Webinar (GL15107982) held online at 9:00 CST on Saturday, October 23, 2021.

An Experimental Comparison Of Simple Measurements Used For The Characterization Of Sand Equestrian Surfaces, María Alejandra Blanco, Raúl Hourquebie, Kaleb Dempsey, Peter Schmitt, Michael L. Peterson

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Quantitative measurements of performance parameters have the potential to increase consistency and enhance performance of the surfaces as well as to contribute to the safety of horses and riders. This study investigates how factors known to influence the performance of the surface, incorporation of a drainage package, control of the moisture control, and introduction of a geotextile reinforcement, affect quantitative measurements of arena materials. The measurements are made by using affordable lightweight testing tools which are readily available or easily constructed. Sixteen boxes with arena materials at a consistent depth were tested with the Going Stick (GS), both penetration resistance …

Shifting Satellite Control Paradigms: Operational Cybersecurity In The Age Of Megaconstellations, Carl A. Poole [*], Robert A. Bettinger, Mark Reith

Faculty Publications

The introduction of automated satellite control systems into a space-mission environment historically dominated by human-in-the-loop operations will require a more focused understanding of cybersecurity measures to ensure space system safety and security. On the ground-segment side of satellite control, the debut of privately owned communication antennas for rent and a move to cloud-based operations or mission centers will bring new requirements for cyber protection for both Department of Defense and commercial satellite operations alike. It is no longer a matter of whether automation will be introduced to satellite operations, but how quickly satellite operators can adapt to the onset of …

Kentucky Traffic Collision Facts 2020, Eric Green, Paul Ross, Christopher Blackden, Michael Fields, Kenneth Agent

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

KENTUCKY’S TRAFFIC COLLISION FACTS report is based on collision reports submitted to the Kentucky State Police Records Branch. As required by Kentucky Revised Statutes 189.635:

“Every law enforcement agency whose officers investigate a vehicle accident of which a report must be made...shall file a report of the accident...within ten days after investigation of the accident upon forms supplied by the bureau.”

The stated purpose of this requirement is to utilize data on traffic collisions for such purposes as will improve the traffic safety program in the Commonwealth.

Critical Chain – Or Why Wedding Planners Get Ulcers, Greg Hutto

Operations Management Presentations

Planning a wedding is one of the most challenging projects in a young life… So much to do! A respected journal in the project management literature -- Southern Bride -- advises well-off young couples to escape stress and employ a professional wedding planner+. In today's webinar we will contrast two project planning methods in examining one such wedding project -- hastily planned and beset with troubles. We will shed light on the science & art of project management and possibly help our wedding planners (both professional and amateur) avoid stress-induced medical complications. In this webinar, we’ll be spending time with …

Trends Of Non-Fatal Hems Accident-Related Injuries, Richard J. Simonson, Joseph R. Keebler, Alex Chaparro

Publications

We conducted an investigation into non-fatal helicopter emergency medical service accidents from January 26, 1991 to April 26, 2018 via the National Transportation Safety Board aviation accident database. Over this 28-year timeframe 247 accidents results in 251 fatalities and 179 non-fatal injuries. Exploratory analysis of the data indicate that more non-fatal injuries occurred in September compared to any other month during the study timeframe. Exploratory correlational analysis via elastic net logistic regression concluded that no linear relationship of NTSB accident database data provide insights into what factors are correlated with an increased likelihood of non-fatal injuries. Further, no linear relationships …

Safety Of Vulnerable Road Users (Vru's) In Light-Rail Transit (Lrt) Environment, Samir Ahmed, Rifat Bulut

Data

Light-rail transit (LRT), which includes modern streetcars, trolleys, and heritage trolleys, is one of the fastest growing modes of public transportation in the United States. To reduce the cost and complexity of construction, most LRT systems have their tracks placed on city streets, in medians, or in separate at-grade rights-of-way with at-grade crossings. Operating light-rail vehicles (LRVs) along these alignments introduces new conflicts and increases the risk of collisions with vulnerable road users (VRUs) including pedestrians, bicyclists, and electric scooter riders. This study has two main objectives: (1) to review and evaluate the existing body of knowledge and the state …

Safety Of Vulnerable Road Users (Vru's) In Light-Rail Transit (Lrt) Environment, Samir Ahmed, Rifat Bulut

Publications

Light-rail transit (LRT), which includes modern streetcars, trolleys, and heritage trolleys, is one of the fastest growing modes of public transportation in the United States. To reduce the cost and complexity of construction, most LRT systems have their tracks placed on city streets, in medians, or in separate at-grade rights-of-way with at-grade crossings. Operating light-rail vehicles (LRVs) along these alignments introduces new conflicts and increases the risk of collisions with vulnerable road users (VRUs) including pedestrians, bicyclists, and electric scooter riders. This study has two main objectives: (1) to review and evaluate the existing body of knowledge and the state …