TECHNICAL FIELD

An alert system and method are disclosed for activating an alert when an object (e.g., approaching vehicle) is detected as traveling at a given velocity and within a given distance of a roadside alert beacon.

BACKGROUND

Each year service technicians or emergency responders are injured when assisting or approaching distressed, stopped, or parked vehicles. For instance, accidents may occur when an approaching vehicle is traveling at an undesirable velocity or within an undesirable distance from the service vehicle or distressed vehicle. To prevent accidents and to provide advance warning to approaching vehicles, roadside cones or barrels that include flashing LED lights may be employed to alert the approaching vehicles that assistance is being provided. However, conventional cones or barrels may not always effectively provide advance warning to approaching vehicles, and conventional cones and alerts do not provide warnings to the service technician or emergency responders.

SUMMARY

An alert system and method for deployment on or along a roadway. The alert system may comprise at least one alert beacon having one or more sensors (e.g., LiDAR sensor). The alert beacon further including a processor operable to poll the LiDAR sensor for a predefined number of beta readings in response to receiving an initial reading from the LiDAR sensor indicating a vehicle is within a predefined distance away from the alert beacon. The processor further being operable to calculate an average distance and an average velocity for the vehicle in response to receiving the predefined number of beta readings when the vehicle is within the predefined distance from the alert beacon. The processor also being operable to activate an audible alert and a visual alert when the average distance is below a distance threshold and the average velocity exceeds a velocity threshold in response to calculating the average distance and the average velocity.

Each alert beacon may also include one or more digital camera(s) operable to acquire one or more digital images in response to receiving the initial reading from the LiDAR sensor indicating the vehicle is within the predefined distance away from the alert beacon. The processor may also be operable to calculate a second average distance and a second average velocity for the vehicle using the one or more images. The processor may be further operable to activate the audible alert and the visual alert when the second average distance is below the distance threshold and the second average velocity exceeds the velocity threshold. The processor may further be operable to analyze the one or more digital images to determine whether a service repair protocol is being performed.

Each alert beacon may also include a global positioning system (GPS) operable to provide a positioning data and a network interface operable to communicate with a remote server. Each processor may then be operable to transmit an identification and the positioning data of the at least one alert beacon in response to a request signal being received from the remote server. Each processor may also be operable to transmit the positioning data of the alert beacon to the remote server in response to receiving the initial reading from the LiDAR sensor indicating the vehicle is within the predefined distance away from the alert beacon. Each processor may be operable to navigate the at least one alert beacon to the geographical coordinate based on the positioning data in response to a request to deploy the at least one alert beacon to a geographical coordinate.

It is also contemplated that at least one of the alert beacons may be an aerial drone operable to hover about the geographical coordinate based on the positioning data. A mobile software application executing on a mobile device may also be operable to communicate with the at least one alert beacon. Each processor may then be operable to transmit a signal to the mobile software application to activate a visual notification and audible notification on the mobile device in response to receiving the initial reading from the LiDAR sensor indicating the vehicle is within the predefined distance away from the at least one alert beacon. Lastly, each processor may be operable to transmit a warning that is displayed upon an infotainment system within the vehicle in response to receiving the initial reading from the LiDAR sensor indicating the vehicle is within the predefined distance away from the alert beacon.

