Recognition of dangerous situations in road tunnels: Video-Based Image Analysis for Tunnel Safety (VITUS)

The Austrian motorway operator ASFINAG, the ARC Seibersdorf research GmbH and ETM are cooperating in research projects for the improvement of safety and efficiency in road tunnels. This project is funded by the Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie (Austrian Federal Ministry for traffic, innovation and technology (bmvit)) in the framework of the platform I2, Intelligent Infrastructure.

The project VITUS-1 was a feasibility study, for creation of a concept for the recognition and treatment of dangerous situations by digital video image processing. After collection of the danger situation risk-reducing steps are introduced such as alerting the tunnel security, warning of the road users and the automatic archiving of the video images via the tunnel master computer. The background is the modelling of tunnel scenarios used to derive the technical requirements for the systems. In the following process, these requirements will serve as the framework for the pilot and demonstration project VITUS-2.

With VITUS-2 the prototype of automated, video-based monitoring and alarming of tunnel equipment will be realised. To accomplish this, additional sensors are being integrated into the existing video monitoring circuit in the PVSS II (process direction and visualization system) based tunnel control system of the Plabutsch tunnel near Graz, and algorithms are being developed for the analysis of tunnel scenarios. The results are to be used as the basis for developing a benchmark model for tunnel monitoring and tunnel alarm systems.