Collision Avoidance at Intersections using Vehicle
Detectors and Smartphones
Akhil M.∗ , Nirmala Vasudevan† , Ullas Ramanadhan∗ , Alin Devassy∓ ,
Dilip Krishnaswamy∀ , Anand Ramachandran∗
∗Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications, Amrita University,
† Department of Physics, Amrita University, ∓ Robert Bosch GmbH, ∀ IBM Research
Email:{akhilnarayan9, aalinandu}@gmail.com, {ullas, nirmalav, anandramachandran}@am.amrita.edu, dilip@ieee.org
Abstract—Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for
people aged 15 to 29 and the eighth leading cause of death
globally. Accidents at intersections are common, since vehicles
approaching the intersection are not always visible to one another.
Conventional methods, such as the use of traffic lights, and newer
solutions that make use of GPS and VANET are not particularly
effective in India for reasons of adaptability, accuracy, cost and
availability. Our solution promises to be both inexpensive and
effective in India. We propose to install a few inexpensive vehicle
detectors (VDs) near intersections. When a vehicle approaches
the intersection, it will pass the VDs sequentially which will then
transmit their unique IDs to a smartphone in the vehicle. The
smartphone will transmit the VDs’ IDs and relevant kinematic
data to a base station at the intersection. Thus, the base station
can accurately compute the times when vehicles are expected
at the intersection. In the event of a potential collision, the
base station will transmit a warning to the smartphones of the
concerned drivers.
Keywords—Intersection collision avoidance, Vehicle detector
(VD), Road side unit (RSU), VANET, V2V Communication, V2I
communication, Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC),
Differential GPS (DGPS)
I. I NTRODUCTION
Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people
aged 15 to 29, and the eighth leading cause of death globally
[1]. Intersection collisions are very common, and account for
approximately 30% of all vehicle collisions [2]. The primary
problem at intersections is that a vehicle approaching an
intersection often cannot see other oncoming vehicles due to
walls, buildings, trees, or other obstructions on the corner. The
driver has no knowledge of an imminent collision, and cannot
take appropriate action to prevent it.
A conventional method for collision avoidance at intersec-
tions is through the use of traffic lights. In India, people
typically comply with traffic light laws at the busier inter-
sections of metropolitan cities. However, at intersections in
both urban and rural India where there is minimal traffic,
it is very difficult to enforce traffic rules. Even if traffic
lights are installed at these intersections, people tend to ignore
them. Moreover, since there is often little traffic on these
roads, most vehicles approach the intersections at great speeds.
Consequently, there are a significant number of fatal collisions
at these intersections. Thus, there is a need for an intelligent
system that provides a warning of an imminent collision at
such intersections.
Almost all recent work on intersection collision avoidance
proposed the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) to
accurately determine the location of the vehicle and the time
when it is expected at the intersection [2], [3], [4], [5].
Typical GPS accuracy ranges from a few meters to approxi-
mately 20m; differential GPS (DGPS) can provide an accuracy
of 1−3m [6]. Since this accuracy is not sufficient for collision
avoidance, the use of supplementary sensors and software
were proposed in these solutions. These systems typically
used vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) for communication
between vehicles. However such systems are not feasible in
India, as we elaborate in the following paragraphs.
First, GPS systems in India are significantly less accurate
than those available in many other countries around the world.
Moreover, only a few Indian cars are fitted with a GPS module,
and even fewer cars have a GPS device that can provide results
with the accuracy needed for the collision avoidance problem.
Second, the two VANET technologies—vehicle to vehicle
(V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication—
are scheduled to be released in the U.S. market only in
2017. It is unknown when these two technologies will become
available in India. Moreover, these technologies are likely to be
expensive. Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC), a
frequency band of 75 MHz around 5.9 GHz, is used for both
V2V and V2I communication. However, some of the existing
literature suggest that DSRC is not suited for intersection
collision avoidance due to its limited range and coverage [7].
The solution outlined in this concept paper combines the
ideas of using inexpensive vehicle detectors [8] to deter-
mine vehicle locations accurately and smart phones for V2V
communication [9]. The novel contribution of this proposal is
to combine these two ideas in order to develop a solution
for collision avoidance at uncontrolled intersections that is
inexpensive, feasible and easily adaptable.
This solution is particularly suited to India as India may
well become the second largest country of smartphone users
in the world by 2016 [10]. In fact, most drivers may already
possess a smartphone, and our solution does not require much
additional hardware to be installed in the vehicle.
II. P ROPOSED S OLUTION AND S YSTEM A RCHITECTURE
Our proposed solution involves the installation of a few
inexpensive vehicle detectors (VDs) near the intersection as

Fig. 1. Depiction of proposed solution. Vehicles A, B and C approach the
intersection but Vehicle-A is not visible to Vehicles B and C, and vice-versa.
But in the event of an imminent collision between Vehicles A and B/C, the
base station will transmit warning messages to smartphones in the concerned
vehicles.
shown in Fig. 1. These VDs consist of a magnetic sensor that
detects any vehicle that passes by, and a wireless transmitter
that transmits the VD’s unique ID to a smartphone in the
vehicle. With reference to Fig. 1, VDa1, VDa2, ... VDa5 detect
Vehicle-A; VDb1, VDb2, ... detect Vehicle-B; yet another set
of VDs detect Vehicle-C.
The smartphone transmits the VD’s ID, the smartphone’s
unique ID, the time when the vehicle passed the VD, and
the vehicle’s speed and acceleration to a base station at the
intersection, using IEEE 802.11 technology (Wi-Fi). All IDs
should be secured using standard encryption techniques. The
smartphone can read the speed and acceleration of the vehicle
using an interface such as the On Board Diagnostics II (OBD)
system. Since the distance between the VD and the base station
is known, the base station can compute the time when the
vehicle is expected at the intersection (time to intersection –
TTX).
We propose to install five VDs, 5 m apart (or possibly at
some non-linear decreasing distance between the VDs), so that
the first VD is at a distance of 25 m from the intersection,
Fig. 2. Sequence diagram of communication. Three vehicles approach the
intersection with different speeds. Vehicle-A (Smartphone-A) approaches the
intersection at a moderate speed, and passes VDa1. Simultaneously, Vehicle-
B approaches the intersection from another direction and passes VDb1 but
at a slower speed. Hence, the two vehicles reach the intersection at different
times; no collision occurs, and no warning is transmitted. However, Vehicle-C
approaches the intersection and passes VDc1 after a small delay, but with a
greater speed than Vehicle-A and a possible collision is detected. So warnings
are transmitted to Vehicles A and C.
which is the typical stopping distance for a car travelling at
48 km/hr. The purpose of installing several VDs is to account
for changes in vehicle velocity and acceleration. We assume
that a typical vehicle at these smaller intersections is at most
5 m long, and travels at least at 30 km/hr. Therefore, if at any
time, the difference in the TTXs for any two vehicles is lesser
than a threshold value of 1 s (5m/ (30km/hr) = 0.6 s), the base
station will broadcast a prerecorded warning message with the
relevant vehicle IDs attached to the message. In this manner,
we ensure that only the concerned drivers receive the warning.
III. C ONCLUSION
In this concept paper, we have proposed a cost-effective
solution that promises to address the problem of collisions at
uncontrolled intersections in India. As our next step, we are
developing a prototype that we plan to test at a nearby rural T-
intersection. It is straightforward to extend the ideas contained
in this paper and design a similar system that uses Wi-Fi direct
technology, thereby avoiding the need for a base station at the
intersection. With a small enhancement in the Wi-Fi module
of the smartphone, DSRC technology can be incorporated into
the proposed system. Then the system will act as an aid for
the emerging DSRC technology. While we address problems
in India, these ideas can be easily adapted to solve similar
problems elsewhere in the world.
IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are grateful to Amar Gilad Gressel for his help in techni-
cal writing and to our Chancellor Sri. Mata Amritanandamayi
Devi (Amma) for all her support of this work.
R EFERENCES
[1] World Health Organization, “WHO global status report on road safety
2013: supporting a decade of action”, World Health Organization, 2013.
[2] R. Miller, and Q. Huang, “An adaptive peer-to-peer collision warning
system”, IEEE 55th Vehicular Technology Conference, VTC, vol. 1, pp.
31–321, 2002.
[3] Y. Nakanishi, R. Yamaguchi, K. Fujimoto, T. Wada, and H. Okada, “A
New Collision Judgment Algorithm for Pedestrian-Vehicular Collision
Avoidance Support System (P-VCASS) in Advanced ITS”, IEEE 6th Int.
Conf. on Networking and Services, DOI 10.1109/ICNS, 2010.
[4] P. Shrivastava, V. Lodhi, and S.V. Vargiya, “Vehicle to Vehicle Safety
Device - An Ease for Safe Driving” IEEE 2nd Int. Conf. on Computing
for Sustainable Global Development, pp. 251-255, 2015.
[5] M.R. Hafner, and D. Cunningham, “Cooperative Collision Avoidance at
Intersections: Algorithms and Experiments” IEEE Trans. on Intelligent
Transportation Systems, vol. 14, no. 3, pp1162–1175, September 2013.
[6] US Department of Homeland Security. (2015 August 18). NDGPS
General Information. [Online]
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=dgpsMain/
[7] L. Chih Tung, J. Menai, M. Gerla, and C. Sommer “A Cluster Based
Architecture for Intersection Collision Avoidance Using Heterogeneous
Networks” 12th Annual Mediterranean Ad Hoc Networking Workshop
(MED-HOC-NET), pp. 82-88, 2013.
[8] J. Kim, and J. Kim, “Intersection Collision Avoidance using Wireless
Sensor Network”, IEEE Int. Conf. on Vehicular Electronics and Safety
ICVES, 2009.
[9] K.C. Su, H.M. Wu, W.L. Chang, and Y.H. Chou, “Vehicle-to-Vehicle
Communication System through Wi-Fi Network using Android Smart-
phone”, Int. Conf. on Connected Vehicles and Expo, pp. 191-196, 2012.
[10] Indo-Asian News Service. (2015 August 10). India to overtake US in
smartphones by 2016. [Online]
http://indiainbusiness.nic.in/newdesign
/index.php?param=newsdetail/10367