SunGuide SM Incident Management Concepts Robert Heller October 21, 2004

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 2 Agenda SunGuide SM Incident Management (IM) IM Response Plan Generation DMS Message Formatting Rules IM Subsystem Demonstration Open Discussion

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 3 SunGuide SM Incident Management (IM)

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 4 Purpose of SunGuide SM Incident Management (IM) Create recommend response plans: –DMS –HAR when requested by an operator Two types of incidents: –Automatic TSS detects traffic anomalies Basic data automatically filled in –Manual Operator enters all incident data NOTHING happens w/o operator approval!!!

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 5 Benefits of SunGuide SM IM Will provide a consistent technique to creating messages for responding to incidents Provides an automated list of activities to perform to manage an incident, the system will recommend messages based on established messaging principles Provides a flexible interface to visually create response plans during pre-event planning (e.g. sporting event) Should reduce the need for “message libraries”

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 6 IM Work Flow: How SunGuide SM Generates Response Plans

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 7 Incident Management Process Flow

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 8 Incident Management : High Level Design Concept Both a Client and Provider

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 9 Response Plan Creation Rules

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 10 Factors for Creating Response Plans The number of lanes that are defined for the incident that have the same travel direction as the direction of the incident. This is used for: –Used to determine the severity of the incident. –Used to create suggested message text to be displayed/announced on the targeted messaging device.

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 11 Pre-Defined Response Plans Pre-defined Plans – what they are: –Pre-defined plan consists of a collection of plan items. –Each plan item consists of message text and a targeted messaging device to use the message text on. –Each pre-defined plan can be attributed with event types that it applies to. –Each plan can also be attributed with route/direction combinations that it pertains to. –Example: a pre-defined plan could be created that pertained to “congestion” on “I-4 Eastbound”.

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 12 Pre-Defined Response Plans - continued Pre-defined Plans – how they are used: –The IM subsystem determines if one or more pre-defined plans exist that match: Incident type Route Route direction of incident for which a response plan is requested –If one matching pre-defined plan is found, the IM subsystem suggests the plan –If more than one matching pre-defined plan is found, the IM subsystem will send a suggestion that includes the identities of all matching pre-defined plans (user selects which one) –If none are found – the subsystem will create a recommended plan

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 13 Creating a Response Plan Determine the number of miles to use when searching for DMS and HAR devices: –Search circle: Each response plan creation request has a “mileage override” for the “search circle” (a default exists if not set by the user). If this value is not set, the system will determine how many miles to search based on system configuration parameters and the percentage of main direction lanes that are blocked by the event.

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 14 Creating a Response Plan - continued The system contains a number of configuration parameters used to determine the distance to use when searching for DMS and HAR devices: –What percentage of main direction lanes must be blocked for an event to be considered SEVERE –What percentage must be blocked for the event to be considered MODERATE –All events with a lower percentage of main direction lanes blocked than the moderate threshold will be considered MINOR –Search Circle: How many miles away a DMS can be located and be included for a SEVERE event How many miles away a DMS can be located and be included for a MODERATE event How many miles away a DMS can be located and be included for a MINOR event

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 15 Creating a Response Plan The IM subsystem will examine these parameters and the number of main direction lanes blocked to determine which DMS and HAR devices should be included in the suggested response plan.

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 16 Message Template Message template in the database. Template is used to create a suggested message. If any of the data required by the message template is not available, no message suggestion will be made. Current template contents: –[EVENT TYPE] – Examples: “Incident”, “Congestion” –[ROUTE NAME] – Examples: “I-4”, “I-75” –[ROUTE DIR] – Examples: “NB”, “SB” –[LANDMARK PROXIMITY] – Examples: “At”, “Prior To”, “Past” –[LANDMARK NAME] - Examples: “Exit 12”, “Route 212 Overpass” –[LANE STATUS] – “3 Left Lanes Closed”, “All Lanes Open”

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 17 DMS Message Creation Rules

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 18 SunGuide SM Message Formats: Based on the Maryland CHART Rules Message formatting algorithm built into IM Strings are represented internally using NTCIP MULTI CHART Rules that are applied to all IM generated messages: –All text on all rows is centered horizontally. –A single line of text is displayed on the center row of the DMS. –A message with two lines will be displayed on the top and bottom rows of the DMS. –A message with three lines of text will be displayed on the first second and third lines of the DMS respectively.

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 19 SunGuide SM Message Formats: Based on the Maryland CHART Rules CHART Rules that are applied to all IM generated messages (continued): –Keyword phrases will not be split across multiple lines of the DMS. –Known route types will be combined as a phrase with the following word which will serve as the route name. –The word following the route name will be checked to see if it is a known direction. If so, the direction will be added to the route phrase. –Known modifiers (i.e. "Past, Prior, At") will always be moved to the next available line of the DMS message.

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 20 SunGuide SM Message Formats: Based on the Maryland CHART Rules – con’t CHART Rules (continued): –A message is presumed to be broken into 3 segments The 'what is' on line 1 The 'where is' on line 2 The 'what to do' on line 3 –Current 'What is' words include: ACCIDENT, ROADWORK, DELAYS, CONGESTION, EMERGENCY These words are expected on line 1 of the current page or are forced to line 1 on the next page

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 21 SunGuide SM Message Formats: Based on the Maryland CHART Rules – con’t CHART Rules (continued): –Current 'where is' words include: AT, EXIT, ON, PRIOR, PAST These words will be forced to line 2 if they are found on line 1 following a 'what is' word –Current 'what to do' words include: ALL, LEFT, RIGHT, EXPECT, LOCAL, STAY, USE, MERGE, 1, 2, 3, 4, CENTER These words will be forced to line 3 if they are found on line 2 of the message

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 22 SunGuide SM IM Demonstration

October 21, 2004SunGuide Incident Management 23 Liang Y. Hsia, P.E. (850) Florida Dept. of Transportation 605 Suwannee St. MS 90 Tallahassee, Florida Robert Heller, Ph.D. (210) Southwest Research Institute P.O. Drawer San Antonio, Texas Questions? SunGuide Contact Information: