Clarus Initiative:Coordination with USDOT VII Initiative

Paul Pisano, FHWA Road Weather Management Program

James Pol, USDOT ITS Joint Program Office

NCAR VII Expert Panel MeetingFebruary 22, 2006

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Agenda

• Context of VII within Clarus Initiative– Motivations for Clarus Initiative– A General Model for Applying Clarus– Clarus – Primary Data Sources– VII Impact on Overcoming Gaps– VII Impact on Decision Making

• Coordination between Clarus and VII– Overview on VII Program Activities– VII Use Case Development– Purpose of Use Cases– Use Case Development Schedule– Weather/Clarus-involved Use Cases

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Motivations for Clarus Initiative

• Assimilate surface transportation environmental observations on a national level so that state and local transportation agencies can be more productive in maintaining safety and mobility.

• Support real-time operational responses to weather events and weather impacts.

• Enhance and extend the existing weather data sources that support general purpose weather forecasting for the protection of life and property.

• Integrate surface transportation environmental observations to support the enhancement and creation of models that make better predictions in the planetary boundary layer.

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A General Model that Applies to the Clarus Initiative

ForecastModels

ForecastModels

ObservingSystems

ObservingSystems

Predictions

Observations

Decision SupportSystems andAssessments

PolicyDecisions

ManagementDecisions

Societal Benefits

Data

On-going feedback to optimize value and reduce gaps

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Clarus – Primary Data Sources

• Fixed roadside stations

• Vehicles

• NWS surface observations

State DOT Road Weather Information System Stations

45oF

44oF

43oF

45oF

44oF 38oF

Vehicles as weather and road condition probes

Roadside Sensors

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VII Impact on Overcoming Gaps

• Fundamental deficiencies today– Incomplete picture of road weather conditions:

• Spatially

• Temporally

• At sufficient level of detail

which impedes effective decision making– Lack of ability to predict surface level weather and road

conditions

• VII opens the opportunity for empirical data gathering not possible otherwise

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VII Impact on Decision Making

• VII enables enhanced response and planning through improvements to weather and road condition observations, models, and predictions

– Microscale events for immediate response(e.g., black ice, fog banks) conveyed in seconds to minutes

– Mesoscale events for tactical response (e.g., thunderstorms, flash floods) forecast in minutes to hours

– Synoptic scale events for strategic response (e.g. blizzards, floods, heat) forecast in hours to days

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Agenda

• Context of VII within Clarus Initiative– Motivations for Clarus Initiative– A General Model for Applying Clarus– Clarus – Primary Data Sources– VII Impact on Overcoming Gaps– VII Impact on Decision Making

• Coordination between Clarus and VII– Overview on VII Program Activities– VII Use Case Development– Purpose of Use Cases– Use Case Development Schedule– Weather/Clarus-involved Use Cases

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Overview on VII Program Activities

• VII Architecture Development Support– Booz-Allen-Hamilton Team– Define VII Architecture and Development Test Environment for

VII Proof of Concept Testing– Coordination with VII-C and VII Working Group

• Tentative Timeframe– Use Case Definition and Validation April 2006– Application Design and Development December 2006– VII RSE, OBE, and Network Development September 2006– Subsystem Integration and Testing January 2007– Application Integration and Testing May 2007

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VII Use Case Development

• Use-cases will help define requirements for development and test environment (DTE), but also will help refine overall system requirements for nationwide deployment.

• The focus of Use-Case descriptions is NOT to decide on, or define, long term stakeholder relationships (or government/industry structure) for executing the use-case—but rather on technical and systems requirements.

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Purpose of Use Cases

• Use case descriptions will be viewed collectively to:– Refine functional requirements for OBE, RSE, and Network,– Allocate and refine software development needs for supporting

applications (e.g., probemessages, mapping information; other infrastructure based data management needs), and

– help define more detailed program plans for “standing up” each of the applications:• Stakeholder responsibilities,

• Schedules, including key milestones,

• Identify Resource requirements (equipment, expertise, fabrication needs etc. that may need to be gathered from outside current set of stakeholders).

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Use Case Development Schedule

• Develop Draft Use Case Descriptions:– Draft use cases (including use case and sequence diagrams) for all the

POC use cases developed by 3/03/2006.

• Use Case Review by VII Working Group Members and Subject Matter Experts– Each use case will be reviewed by the members of the VII working group

as well as subject matter experts (i.e., state/local DOTs, traffic engineers, e-Commerce experts). This will be completed by 3/31/2006. Revisions will the be made to the use case descriptions.

• Finalize Use Cases– Complete, uniform, and agreed-upon use cases descriptions and diagrams

for all use cases will be developed by 4/07/2006.

• Document Use Cases In Approved Template and Rational Rose UML– A complete POC Use Case Document will be developed by 4/07/2006.

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Roadway Environmental Condition Information: Improved Wx Observing and Forecasting with Clarus

• Purpose: – Establish vehicles as data probes– Manage the data from the vehicles via a translating mechanism

and with Clarus– Enable ISPs, Clarus customers, and weather research

community access to managed observations– Enable NOAA capacity for improved traveler notification of

weather conditions

• Involved Parties: Vehicle, Clarus, Weather Observation and Event Translator (WOET), Transportation Operations Center (TOC), Information Service Provider

• Description: WOET transforms Vehile data into observations that are managed through Clarus. TOCs, ISPs and other Clarus subscribers gain access to the probe data.

Use Case #1

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Winter Maintenance

• Purpose: – Obtain information on state of road and rail surface– Process data applying a Maintenance Decision Support System– Provide more accurate predictions of pavement and rail

conditions

• Involved Parties: Vehicle, Clarus, Maintenance Vehicle, Maintenance Management System (MMS), Weather Observation and Event Translator (WOET), Transportation Operations Center (TOC)

• Description: WOET transforms Vehile data into observations that are managed through Clarus. MMS gathers data from Clarus, NOAA, ISPs and from Maintenance Vehicles. TOC issues data back to vehicles.

Use Case #2

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Disseminate RecommendedRoutes and Treatment to the

Maintenance Vehicle

SurfaceConditionEquipment

InformationServiceProvider

Weather Observationand Event Translator

MaintenanceManagementSystem (MMS)

Vehicle

SurfaceTreatmentSystem

NOAA

EnvironmentalSensorStations (ESS)

Clarus

MaintenanceVehicle

ProbeDataProvider

Command SurfaceSystems for Treatment

Provide Translated VIIData to Weather

Observations

Provide WinterMaintenance Vehicle

Status

Provide NOAA Value-added Weather Data

Collect MaintenanceVehicle Probe Data

CoordinateNOAA/ClarusData Transfer

Collect LocalSurface Condition

Data

Provide Value-added Weather

Data

Collect GeneralVehicle Probe Data

Collect RegionalSurface Condition

Data

Provide ProbeData to Clarus

Query Clarus forWeather Data

Collect RegionalESS Data

Query ClarusWeather Data

Provide ProbeData to MMS

Collect LocalESS Data

VII NetworkEnd Users

OBE RSE VII Network

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MaintenanceManagement

System (MMS)

Maintenance Vehicle WeatherObservation andEvent Translator

Probe Data Provider ClarusVehicle EnvironmentalSensor Stations

Surface TreatmentSystem

NOAA Surface ConditionEquipment

Collect Maintenance Vehicle Probe Data

Provide Winter Maintenance Vehicle Status

Provide VII-based Weather Observations

Query Clarus for Weather Data

Provide Clarus Data

Recommend Route and Treatment

Provide Maintenance Vehicle Probe Data

Collect Maintenance Vehicle Probe Data

Command Surface Treatment System

Provide Surface Condition Data

Provide Surface Condition Data

Provide ESS Data

Provide ESS Data

Provide Clarus Data

Provide NOAA Data

Provide Vehicle Probe Data

Provide Vehicle Probe Data

Collect General Vehicle Probe Data

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Traffic Management: Pothole Maintenance

• Purpose:– Obtain information probes on state of road surface– Process data through system that assesses potential pothole and

road roughness– Recommend road locations needing maintenance

• Involved Parties: Vehicle, Maintenance Vehicle, ISP, Maintenance Management System (MMS)

• Description: Vehicles and Maintenance Vehicles will send data to MMS, which processes to determine locations needing attention. Results are sent to Maintenance Vehicles and other maintenance managers.

Use Case #3

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Roadway Environmental Condition Information: Traveler Notification with Clarus

• Purpose:– Provide the national Clarus system and localized Transportation

Operations Centers with indications of road surface conditions based on sensor readings received from vehicles

• Involved Parties: Vehicle, Clarus, NOAA, ISP, Highway Advisory Radio, Dynamic Message Signs, Surface Condition Equipment, WOET

• Description: Vehicle probe data are transformed via WOET, then conveyed to Clarus. Clarus subscribers will convey data via traveler information assets such as 511, HAR, DMS, web.

Use Case #4

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Roadway Environmental Condition Information: Traveler Notification without Clarus

• Purpose:– Provide vehicle data to TOCs and ISPs for conversion to

meaningful observations

• Involved Parties: Vehicle, NOAA, ISP, Highway Advisory Radio, Dynamic Message Signs, Surface Condition Equipment

• Description: TOCs and ISPs subscribe to probe data providers directly. In turn they will convey information via traveler information assets such as 511, HAR, DMS, web.

Use Case #5

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Next Steps

• Convene Use Case Review Task Force within Clarus ICC– Notification email for self-selection March 3– Kickoff Conference Call March 9– Review Comments Due March 23– Review Comments Conference Call March 28