Project snapshot. More details below.
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Products
(Project Number)
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Impact on Practice
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Product Status
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TECHNICAL COORDINATION AND INDEPENDENT QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR FIELD STUDY (S06)
Oversight of the S07 data collection teams; data file construction and quality control; data access procedures; preparation of specialized data files for analysis; thorough documentation of the data and access procedures.
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Consistent and timely operations at the six study sites, including equipment installation, data transfer, and interactions with participants, are critical to the ultimate usefulness of the NDS data. Intake, processing, and quality control of 4 petabytes of data demands well-designed procedures, highly sophisticated computer hardware and software, and careful management.
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SHRP 2 Background
To address the challenges of moving people and goods efficiently and safely on the nation’s highways, Congress has created the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2). SHRP 2 is a targeted, short-term research program carried out through competitively awarded contracts to qualified researchers in the academic, private, and public sectors. SHRP 2 addresses four strategic focus areas: the role of human behavior in highway safety (Safety); rapid highway renewal (Renewal); improved travel time reliability through congestion reduction (Reliability); and transportation planning that better integrates community, economic, and environmental considerations into new highway capacity (Capacity). Under current legislative provisions, SHRP 2 will receive approximately $170 million with total program duration of 7 years. Additional information about SHRP 2 can be found on the program’s Web site at www.trb.org/shrp2.
Safety Focus Area
The objective of the safety focus area is to mitigate traffic injuries and fatalities by preventing, or reducing the severity, of collisions. Every 1 percent reduction will prevent 430 deaths and $2.3 billion annually in medical expenses and other losses from these collisions. Moreover, collisions are a leading cause of nonrecurring congestion. Collision prevention has added benefits in terms of reduced delay, fuel consumption, and emissions.
Project Objective
The objective of Project S06 is to provide overall technical coordination and quality control for the multiple Project S07 sites that will carry out data collection for the in-vehicle driving behavior field study. The overall goal is ensure that the correct data are collected and stored securely while maintaining all human subject protections. Project S06 responsibilities include overseeing procedures for protection of human subjects, coordinating study protocols, consent forms, Institutional Review Board applications, training of Project S07 driver assessment and DAS installation staff, making Project S07 site visits, overseeing subject recruitment and adherence to the sampling plan, managing the response to all system health check and collision notification messages, monitoring hard drive removal and data upload to the S06 server, maintaining the data collection schedule, processing, storing and providing access to the study data for the S08 analysis projects. The project management plan for the Technical Coordination and Quality Control project (S06) is provided by Task 15 of the Project S05 Study Design. The overall scope of this project is to implement the study design management plan with the addition of the DAS procurement activities.
It is anticipated that separate contracts will be awarded for data collection in six sites. The field study data collection contractors will be responsible for scheduling participant drivers for installation and assessment, collecting data, addressing problems encountered during the study, investigating crashes, data transmission, carrying out quality control procedures and preparing periodic reports documenting the field study activities. The organization and management of all activities will be conducted under procedures defined by the study design (S05) contractor, VTTI, and under the day-to-day oversight of the quality control (S06) contractor. The combined goal is to collect about 3,900 vehicle-years of data in a 28-month period.
Participant recruitment and screening for all sites will be conducted by a single national call center. The call center will support the site contractors. To provide a more representative group of participants, the call center will recruit drivers from randomly selected listed samples of households located in the study sites. After participants have been screened by the call center and have agreed to participate, their contact information will be forwarded to the appropriate S07 site contractor for scheduling. As recruitment activities progress, they may have to be targeted on age/gender cells that are not filled. Traditional recruitment activities such as advertisements and presentations, using prepared recruitment materials provided by the S06 contractor, will be conducted by the S07 site contractors. The recruitment activities conducted by the S07 site contractors will direct volunteers to a single toll-free number answered at the call center. The call center activity is expected to be conducted by the Project S06 Technical Coordination and Quality Control contractor under subcontract to a qualified survey research center.
The entire field study will track about 1,950 DAS units on vehicles for two years, for a total of 3,900 vehicle-years of data. The study design seeks to control the distribution of drivers in the study by age and gender as described later under Driver Recruitment and shown in Table 1 from the Study Design. The DAS is designed to be easily mounted on a wide range of vehicles, including passenger cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, and pickup trucks, but not all makes and models in these categories will be included in the study. As shown in Table 4, 798 DAS units will be installed and maintained for two full years. The remaining 1,152 units will be installed and maintained on vehicles for one year; then a new participant will be recruited for the second study year. Recruiting 1,152 new drivers after the first year increases the number of primary drivers in the study to 3,102.
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TABLE 1
Sample Design (with Target Cell Values)
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Gender:
Age Range
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Age Range Description
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One
Year
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Two
Years
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DAS
units
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Primary Participants
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Data-Years
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M 16-20
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Teen / Minor
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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M 21-35
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Young Adult
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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M 36-50
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Middle Adult
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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M 51-65
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Mature Adult
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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M 66-75
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Younger Older Driver
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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M 76+
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Older Older Driver
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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F 16-20
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Teen
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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F 21-35
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Young Adult
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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F 36-50
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Middle Adult
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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F 51-65
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Younger Older Driver
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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F 66-75
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Middle Older Driver
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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F 76+
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Older Older Driver
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96
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36
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132
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228
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264
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Any
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Advanced Vehicle Technology
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366
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366
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366
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732
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Totals:
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1,152
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798
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1,950
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3,102
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3,900
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Tasks
Task 1: Human Subjects Protection. The objective of this task is to oversee and coordinate adherence to all applicable Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) policies and regulations on the protection of human research subjects (45 CFR Part 46, as amended) including obtain approval for this project from multiple Institutional Review Boards (IRB) governing this project: VTTI’s IRB, the IRBs of the Project S07 site contractors, and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) IRB. The SHRP 2 Naturalistic Driving Study should also be conducted under the protection of a National Institute of Health Certificate of Confidentiality. This task also includes finalizing all consent forms and study protocols developed under the Study Design project (S05).
Task 2: Data Acquisition System (DAS) Management. The objective of this task is to provide technical assistance for the acquisition of and warranty performance of up to 1,950 Data Acquisition Systems (DAS), plus an appropriate number of spares and to manage the distribution of these DAS units to the Project S07 site data collection contractors. This technical assistance applies to the development of bid materials, evaluation of bids, procurement of production prototype systems, acceptance testing, system procurement and warranty activities. The procurement plan and all purchases require approval of the NAS Office of Contracts and Grants. DAS software including the operating system, machine vision lane tracking, machine vision head pose and driver identifications will be provided by VTTI.
Task 2.1 DAS Procurement Activities. The objective of this task is to support the DAS procurement activities including develop a procurement plan, provide technical materials/specifications to support the procurement activities, assist with the development of bid materials/documents, participate in the evaluation committee, recommend vendors and, with NAS approval, complete the DAS acquisition. (Actual purchase of the DAS and/or DAS components is provided for under a separate agreement for Project S12A.)
Task 2.2 Acceptance Testing for DAS Procurement. The DAS Procurement Plan calls for acquisition and acceptance testing of 15 production prototype systems each from 2-3 DAS vendors. The objective of this task is to carry out the acceptance testing of the production prototypes under the direction of NAS and or its agents according to the schedule in the DAS Procurement Plan.
Task 2.3 DAS Warranty and Service Activities. The objective of this task is to support the performance of the DAS throughout the 28-month Project S07 data collection, including supporting the project S07 sites by troubleshooting and diagnosing problems, warranting the overall performance of the DAS in accord with requirements laid out in agreement S12A, managing any service level agreement with the DAS supplier(s), development and distribution of revised procedures, software upgrades and any other system modifications necessary to maintain system performance.
Task 3: System Integration.
The objective of this task is to provide software to support the use of the DAS in the field by the Project S07 site contractors including DAS installation, software loading/initiation and data management. Automating the conduct and monitoring of these activities is central to achieving the Project S06 technical coordination and quality control activities.
Task 3.1: Verification Code. This task was initiated under Project S05, Modification 4 Task S06A. The DAS Procurement Plan requires software that the DAS vendor can run on the DAS and verify the system has all components functioning correctly. This software is also the key to successful testing and installation of the system. When the DAS is removed at the end of data collection for one participant, the software will verify that the system is functioning and can be installed in a subsequent participant’s vehicle.
Task 3.2: Installation Guide. Each DAS installer will have a laptop computer and cable to connect to the DAS. This task addresses software to run on the installer’s laptop and guide the installation of the system step by step. The guide should include information specific to individual vehicle makes and models. The program should also allow them to view the data on the DAS when in a diagnostics mode. The software should also store pertinent information about the installation such as calibrations and identifying numbers for each system component. The program should produce a database that documents the necessary data about the vehicle and the installation. This task should also include any fixtures or special tools needed by the S07 site contractors to install, set up and calibrate the DAS.
Task 3.3: Field Repair Guide. DAS technicians should also be able to take the laptop computer with them in the field to replace the hard drive or troubleshoot problems. The field repair guide should use the verification code and guide the technician in troubleshooting, diagnosing problems or replacing system components. The software should confirm correct functioning and record any system changes for upload to the S06 database.
Task 3.4: Project Management Software. To support the Project S06 activities, software is need to track many activities, at a minimum:
o Individual and collective S07 site status/reporting
o DAS inventory and tracking
o Participant sample status
o Car tracking, and location software for downloads and to find vehicles
o ACN management
o Health check management
o A driver assessment database that includes both the data collected at the site and the data collected remotely from the web. This includes the survey instruments that will be used, the secure database, and the quality checks.
Task 3.5: Video and Data Viewing Tool. Once the data are uploaded to the S06 server and initial processing is completed, all users will require various software to access and use the data. This task cannot address all means of access. However, a central capability is to retrieve data for individual vehicles from the database and view any sensor channels in combination with video data, synchronized and shown over the selected period of time. User input supports an open source implementation, perhaps based upon a common commercial application environment, so users can expand or modify functionality and capabilities over time. A Matlab® program, or similar commercial software, is recommended for this purpose.
Task 4: Supporting Activities for the S07 Projects
The objective of this task is to provide 3 supporting activities for the S07 project: (1) provide certain common equipment to each S07 site, (2) operate a national call center to recruit study participants from random household lists for each S07 site, and (3) provide national cellular service for DAS units to enable the automated health check and collision notification functions.
Task 4.1: Provided Equipment and Materials for the S07 Sites.
In order to maintain consistency across sites, a set of equipment, software and materials will be provided to the S07 contractors at no cost to them through the S06 contractor.
Task 4.2: National Call Center. The objective of this task is to use a national call center to recruit study participants using random listed samples of households for each S07 site.
Task 4.3: National Cellular Plan for DAS. A cellular communication link is required to support the DAS capability to send automatic health checks and collision notifications, as well as to support communication to the DAS. The objective of this task is to select and provide a national cellular plan that will cover all of the DAS units in each S07 site.
Task 5: Quality Control and Oversight
The central objective of the S06 projects is to make sure the data that are put on the S06 server are of the highest quality possible and that the data are consistent across all the S07 sites. This task includes technical coordination of the S07 sites, training S07 project staff, overseeing S07 quality control procedures, carrying out quality assurance activities, and processing data uploaded to the S06 server.
Task 5.1: Technical Coordination. The objective of this task is coordination of technical activities across multiple SHRP 2 safety projects. The SHRP 2 Naturalistic Driving Behavior Study includes multiple S07 contractors and multiple sites. Technical coordination is central to the success of the program and the consistency of the data. The national call center activities and the S04 Roadway Data Collection project must also be coordinated with the S07 projects.
Task 5.2: Training. The objective of this task is to prepare staff and facilities for the project, including training, equipment and materials. The S06 contractor is responsible for training the S07 project driver assessment staff and the DAS technicians.
Task 5.3: Quality Assurance. The Project S05 Study Design includes quality control activities for the S07 site contractors that will be implemented as part of technical coordination. The objective of this task is to carry out the quality assurance activities to verify that the quality control activities are producing data of the expected quality, completeness and consistency in each S07 site.
Task 5.4: Data Processing. The objective of this task is to carry out initial data processing as the data are added to the S06 database.
Task 6: Project Management and Reporting. The objective of this task is to develop and monitor the management plan, to prepare progress reports as called for and to prepare a final report at the end of the project.
Deliverables
1. DAS evaluation plan—end of first month
2. IRB materials—end of month 3
3. Amplified Work Plan and Revised Management Plan—within 3 months of contract start
4. Traditional recruiting materials—end of month 5
5. DAS acceptance testing report—end of month 6
6. Quality assurance plan—end of month 6
7. System integration software (Task 3)—end of month 6
8. Monthly Progress Reports—15 days after month end
9. Quarterly Progress Reports—30 days after quarter end
10. Draft Final Report—1 month before project end date
11. Project Final Report—project end date
