This unit provides timely information on statuses of vehicles and intersections.

The purpose of this article is to describe, in more detail, the transponder installed in each vehicle that participates in the emergency traffic-light-preemption system described in the immediately preceding article.

The transponder (see figure) is a fully autonomous data-collection, data-processing, information- display, and communication subsystem that performs robustly in preemption of traffic lights and monitoring of the statuses of street intersections. This transponder monitors the condition of the emergency vehicle in which it is installed and determines when the vehicle has been placed in an emergency-response condition with its siren and/or warning lights activated. Upon detection of such a condition, the transponder collects real-time velocity and acceleration data from the onboard diagnostic (OBD) computer of the vehicle.

For this purpose, the transponder contains an OBD interface circuit, including a microprocessor that determines the manufacturer and model of the vehicle and then sends the appropriate commands to the OBD computer requesting the speed and acceleration data. At the same time, data from an onboard navigation system are collected to determine the location and the heading of the vehicle. Then acceleration, speed, position, and heading data are processed and combined with a vehicle identification number and the resulting set of data is transmitted to monitoring and control units located at all intersections within communication range.

When the unit at an intersection determines that this vehicle is approaching and has priority to preempt the intersection, it transmits a signal declaring the priority and the preemption to all participating vehicles (including this one) in the vicinity. If the unit at the intersection has determined that other participating vehicles are also approaching the intersection, then this unit also transmits, to the vehicle that has priority, a message that the other vehicles are approaching the same intersection. The texts of these messages, plus graphical symbols that show the directions and numbers of the approaching vehicles, are presented on the display panel of a computer that is part of the transponder.

This work was done by Conrad Foster and Aaron Bachelder of Caltech for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For further information, access the Technical Support Package (TSP) free on-line at www.techbriefs.com/tsp under the Electronics/Computers category.

In accordance with Public Law 96-517, the contractor has elected to retain title to this invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its commercial use should be addressed to: Innovative Technology Assets Management JPL Mail Stop 202-233 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 91109-8099 (818) 354-2240 E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Refer to NPO-30607, volume and number of this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the page number.

This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).

Vehicle Transponder for Preemption of Traffic Lights (reference NPO-30607) is currently available for download from the TSP library.

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