Born within the scope of the Celtic/EUREKA program, the TRUST project (Transportation and Road Monitoring System for Ubiquitous Real-time Information Services) was developed by a Portuguese consortium comprised of Aveiro-based company Microio - Serviços de Electrónica Lda., Eurico Ferreira S.A. and Instituto de Telecomunicações.
The project was coordinated by IT researcher Joaquim Ferreira, along with 23 international partners, and provides a smart monitoring system that is able to remotely collect and process weather information, identify driving hazards (aquaplaning, fog, flash floods, etc.) in specific locations and alert drivers with real-time, personalized recommendations.
According to the Portuguese Authority for Road Safety, the number of fatalities and accidents are decreasing; however, the number of fatalities due to adverse weather induced accidents has increased by 30% in 2019 and 2020, following a consistent trend over the last few years. Likewise, a report by the World Health Organization estimates 1.35 million people die each year from road traffic injuries, making road accidents the eighth leading cause of death globally.
In an effort to reduce these numbers, TRUST brings together cooperative intelligent transport systems (ITS), including distributed sensing, vehicular communications, the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing and Big Data, to enable drivers to be better informed and make safer use of transport networks.
Unlike existing systems — such as highway electronic panels and mobile applications, which provide only basic information —TRUST combines a complete analysis of traffic and weather data with a personalized notification system for each type of vehicle.
The project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (COMPETE 2020).