The E xploratory A dvanced R esearch P rogram

Next Gen eratio n T r a nsportatio n Solutio ns

eXPLORATORY Advanced

Research Program

Hand-off Workshops
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Overview of Projects

The EAR Program workshops featured 10 projects, categorized into the 

following topic areas: human behavior and travel choices for safety, human behavior and travel choices for planning, technology for assessing 

performance, integrated highway system concepts, and nanoscale research. Project leads and researchers provided participants with project 

background, progress, and discussion on potential funding sources for 

continued investigation.

Human Behavior and Travel Choices for Safety

•	 SAIC/Texas Transportation Institute (TTI): Increased Understanding 

of Driver Visibility Requirements—This project aims to develop a rational theoretical framework for determining the quantity and quality of 

visual information needed by drivers to navigate the roadway safely and 

effectively.

•	 Sarnoff Corporation: Layered Object Recognition System for Pedestrian 

Collision Sensing—Focusing on a real-time, in-vehicle, vision-only system, this project’s goal is to detect moving or stationary pedestrians on 

Since 2007, the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program has funded over 35 

research projects. With project durations ranging from 2 to 4 years, 

2010 saw the first projects awarded under the EAR program nearing conclusion. Each of these projects includes a transition plan 

from research to next steps and more recent projects include measures of success. In March and April 2010 two workshops involving 

almost 100 researchers and stakeholders from different fields and 

sectors reviewed the work of a selection of these projects, and assessed which projects have the potential to lead to transformational 

improvements to plan, build, renew, and operate safe, congestion 

free, and environmentally sound transportation systems.
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sidewalks and along roadways with high accuracy and a very low false 

alarm rate.

•	 Virginia Tech: Development of Methodologies to Evaluate Nighttime Safety Implications of Roadway Visual Scene Under Cognitive Task Loads—This 

cooperative agreement looks to integrate new technology and identify a 

dynamic driver visual model to improve nighttime driving safety. The 

research is designed to develop a model framework of human visual perception and forecast driver performance under given visual conditions. 

Nanoscale Research

•	 Texas A&M-TTI: High-Performance Stress-Relaxing Cementitious 

Composites for Crack-Free Pavements 

and Transportation Structures—New 

concepts to prevent or reduce cracks, 

which are a major problem in portland cement concrete, are at the center 

of this research study. Results could 

point the way to a new use of nano 

to microscale inclusions in the concrete to enable it to relax a little under 

stress and reduce harmful cracking.

•	 The City College of New York: Green Advanced Coatings for Application 

on Steel Structures and Bridges—The purpose of this project is to develop 

novel, nanotechnology-based, green coatings for corrosion protection of 

new and existing steel highway infrastructure. This could lead to significant savings in life-cycle costs.

•	 Florida State University: Multifunctional Nanomaterials for Corrosion 

Inhibition—The development of technologies for new in situ nanomaterial-based repair methods that can tailor the materials to include multifunctional properties of carbon nanotubes is the focus of this research. 

The technical innovations could lead to profound impacts in advanced 

multifunctional strengthening and repair technology.

© iStockphoto/Anterovium

Nanotechnology particle structure.
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Human Behavior and Travel Choices for Planning

•	 Arizona State: Modeling the Urban Continuum in an Integrated Framework: Location Choice, Activity Travel Behavior, and Dynamic Traffic Patterns—This project looks at the development of an integrated simulation 

approach using land-use microsimulation models that attempt to simulate market dynamics, travel patterns, and network dynamics and performance in real time.

Integrated Highway System Concepts

•	 Auburn University: Intelligent Multi-Sensor Measurements to Enhance 

Vehicle Navigation and Safety Systems—This project aims to develop an accurate, robust, and reliable vehicle positioning system capable of provid-

“The support of the FHWA’s EAR Program for our project has provided us 

with an opportunity to explore the ability to integrate current on-board vehicle sensors to investigate ways to improve lane positioning for active safety 

systems,” says Dr. David Bevly at Auburn University. “The EAR Program 

funding has enabled us to fund three graduate students to obtain their MS 

degrees (pictured) and moving forward we now hope to further the research 

by integrating additional measurements such as DSCR ranges, visual odometry, and road signature to improve the performance and robustness.”

© Auburn University

The Auburn University research team led by David Bevly (right).
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ing accurate, high-update-rate, lane-level measurements for future navigation and control (safety) systems.

•	 California Partners for Advanced Transportation TecHnology (PATH) 

Program: Development and Evaluation of Selected Mobility Applications for 

VII—This project spans multiple topic areas, focusing on how the new 

capabilities of intelligent vehicles can be used to reduce congestion and 

effectively increase highway capacity.

Technology for Assessing Performance

•	 Colorado School of Mines: Development of Stiffness Measuring Device 

for Padfoot Roller Compaction—This project aims to achieve continuous 

sensing of soil properties during static pad foot roller compaction with 

GPS-based documentation. A new pad-based, roller-integrated system for 

real-time measurement of the elastic modulus of fine- and mixed-grain 

soils is the ultimate goal.

Workshop Discussion

Two of the research projects are highlighted here, the 3-year California 

PATH Program project, and the 2-year Colorado School of Mines project.

California PATH Program

Working in cooperation with California Department of Transportation, the California PATH project at the University of California, 

Berkeley, aims to improve traffic 

flow by calculating and communicating speed guidance directly to 

individual drivers; achieve closer 

coordination, shorter vehicle separation gaps, and higher effective lane 

capacities through vehicle–vehicle 

communication, vehicle–infrastruc- © iStockphoto/WendellandCarolyn

Truck platooning could greatly improve 

fuel efficiency.
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ture communication, and cooperative adaptive cruise control; and improve 

heavy-truck fuel consumption and double the capacity of truck-only lanes 

by forming and maneuvering automated three-truck platoons.

The cooperative adaptive cruise control results presented at the workshop demonstrated that in a simulation of 100 percent market penetration, lane capacity went from 2,000 vehicles per hour to over 4,000 vehicles per hour. However, there were a number of scientific and engineering 

questions raised, for example the cooperative adaptive cruise control system requires development of new software algorithms to avoid the system 

making people uncomfortable with small gaps. Early simulations showed 

the ability of double-lane capacity with a 0.5-second gap, but the issue 

of driver comfort and acceptance remains an ongoing concern. Further 

simulations are anticipated to simulate gaps and achievable lane capacity; 

in addition the team will test vehicle coupling and multiple vehicles with 

differing performance in traffic to prove string stability.

Active Traffic Management results also showed promise based on simulations using variable speed limits to maximize effective highway capacity. 

The system is able to probe vehicle data and transmit speed advisories to 

the vehicle to indicate the appropriate speed to travel on the highway to 

maximize the flow. However, there is an ongoing challenge to convince 

transportation and law enforcement officials that Active Traffic Management is desirable. Further ramp-metering coordination strategies are to be 

tested, and the team plans to develop coordination between freeway ramp 

metering and arterial traffic-signal control. 

Finally, the project’s Automated Truck Platoon concept was discussed. 

An experiment involving two trucks coupled electronically produced energy savings of 10 percent for the lead vehicle and 15 percent for the following vehicle. The results showed truck platooning has the potential to 

greatly improve the number of trucks moving through a lane per hour, but 

software robustness is a key focus at this time, particularly when working 

with the average truck’s three braking systems.

Colorado School of Mines

The Colorado School of Mines project builds on research and practice in 

Europe, where continuous compaction control and intelligent compac-
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tion of soil were developed and are now in widespread use. 

Researchers are modeling a breakthrough approach and developing a 

prototype system to continuously measure soil modulus through its relationship with the contact force-displacement response of individual roller 

pads. Subgrade modulus is the key parameter used in pavement design 

and in performance-based quality assurance. If this system proves accurate and reliable, it would be significantly superior to the current practice 

of spot testing less than 1 percent of a compacted area.

Latest project results were presented at the workshop, highlighting that 

the project has completed finite element analysis modeling of pad – soil 

interaction mechanics and instrumented roller pads and conducted laboratory testing of instrumented pads and pad-soil interaction. Several questions remain, and workshop discussion focused on how much variation was 

built into the project’s soil model and whether the measurements obtained 

were in fact reliable proxies for soil density and soil strength under different 

soil and moisture conditions. The team is now aiming to establish the correlation between desired performance and the data collected. Also, it was 

concluded that if pad-foot intelligent compaction is shown to offer more 

consistent and reliable compaction, that can result in longer lived highways 

and lower, or equal, life-cycle costs, it should be adopted.

Finally, ongoing field demonstrations will be needed to confirm the reliability of measurements in a variety of soils, but mapping a deployment 

strategy will be the project team’s immediate action. It was generally felt 

that the technology would be more readily adopted in another area of 

construction and then later by the highway industry.

© Caterpillar, Inc. 

An overview of a padfoot roller and driver interface.
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Research Life Cycle

The EAR Program-funded projects are part of a larger research and development cycle designed to move from basic research through applied 

research, field testing and pilot deployment, and broad implementation 

and adoption. Some of the research supported by EAR Program funds 

may lead to applied or commercial technology development. Other 

projects may provide foundational information about material properties or human behavior, suggest new models or algorithms, develop 

tools for use in conduction research, or lead to completely unexpected 

questions. The FHWA’s research and technology innovation life cycle 

illustrates that research and technology development are not insular 

activities, but integrated processes that together constitute a system.

Following general workshop discussion, a number of common issues 

emerged among the groups. These centered around the research life 

cycle, communicating the value of exploratory advanced research, and 

continued project funding. It was felt 

that there is a general need to better 

describe the research and deployment cycle specific to highway transportation and possibly to highway 

research fields, such as materials or 

system planning. Research life cycle 

diagrams show a very linear, chronological process but it is not necessarily that way in reality. For example 

there is often a lot of back and forth 

between parties as issues are uncovered that need investigating. Overall 

it was felt that the EAR Program has a great understanding of what 

the expectations should be at the earlier stages of research and it allows 

room for unexpected results and a degree of flexibility for overcoming 

difficulties.

The Innovation Life Cycle

Source: FHWA
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Communication

Communicating the value of research was another key topic to 

emerge during the workshop discussions and something that the 

National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 610: Communicating the Value of Transportation Research focuses on in detail. 

Different groups will be interested 

in research, depending on where the 

research is in the overall life cycle, 

so there is a real need to identify audiences and a research deployment 

path specific to each product and industry. Once identified, getting 

information into an appropriate format to disseminate to the proper 

audiences is an important step. The communication strategy should lay 

out a future scope of work to interested States and to potential manufacturers so they can see what their roles and responsibilities would be 

moving forward. 

One of the most important aspects of communicating research discussed at the workshops was the ability to demonstrate things that 

people have not been able to experience before. Paper presentations can 

only deliver so much, but actually being able to see the approach and 

technology, particularly in the exploratory research area, is very powerful. This was seen in the California PATH adaptive cruise control 

project, where stakeholders could very quickly see and understand the 

implications for traffic stability right from the driving seat. 

Example of an EAR Program fact sheet.
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Moving Research Forward

Getting to the end of the EAR Program schedule does not mean the 

end for many of these projects. The issue of moving forward and funding continued research and deployment was a key area of discussion. 

It is clear that there is a need to plan how projects can move forward, 

rather than just searching for the next stage of funding. 

Factors that may influence how research may move forward include 

the organization of the research team, its partners, and their host institutions (academic, business, Government), the type of research and 

research products (reports, data, models, software, tests, equipment), 

stakeholders who would be interested in the research, what other 

groups are working on similar issues and approaches, and the availability of funding.

One approach is to work exclusively with one manufacturer during 

the initial research, providing an incentive for the manufacturer to invest in continued deployment of any potential product, although this 

approach could be seen as giving an unfair advantage to one company 

over others. Another issue raised is that State DOTs may not adopt 

specifications for a product or process licensed to only one manufacturer or written to favor one manufacturer.

For some projects, workshop participants favored a “lead states” type 

of approach over attempting to implement nationally from the beginning. Engaging the more forward-looking States to act as champions was 

seen as the best approach. Demonstrating field reliability is a key step, 

once a deployment strategy has been mapped out to ensure obstacles are 

fully considered in advance of finding partners for deployment.

Some results may also require staged implementation, the example 

of continuous compaction control technology was given in this case. 

The easiest, most incremental use is simply to use the roller to identify 

the weakest area for acceptance based on spot testing. In the second 

use, acceptance is based on the roller measurements after roller measurement and spot test data are correlated based on acceptance criteria. 

The following additional methods to support further research and development of technology were considered:
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•	Look beyond highway research programs—Other fields may offer 

support, particularly if the project raises more fundamental questions, 

e.g. the National Science Foundation funds a lot of basic programs of 

interest to transportation.

•	Foreign Investment—Build partnerships with European counterparts focusing on similar issues.

•	National Cooperative Highway Research Program—The Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Program may offer some 

support to projects moving towards deployment.

•	Federal agency discretionary and small business innovation research 

programs—These can fund applied research, development, and pilot 

applications.

•	National Institute of Standards and Technology—Their Technology 

Innovation Program is not specific to highway transportation but has 

funded projects that benefit highway transportation.

•	University- and foundation-based funding—Talking directly with 

those who facilitate getting technology into practice is the key to moving innovation forward.

•	Federal Lands Highway—May offer a suitable new technology test 

bed, particularly for environmentally focused research.

What is the Exploratory Advanced Research Program?

FHWA’s Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program focuses on long-term, 

high-risk research with a high payoff potential. The program addresses underlying gaps faced by applied highway research programs, anticipates emerging issues 

with national implications, and reflects broad transportation industry goals and 

objectives. 

To learn more about the EAR Program, visit the Exploratory Advanced Research 

Web site at www.fhwa.dot.gov/advancedresearch. The site features information on 

research solicitations, updates on ongoing research, links to published materials, 

summaries of past EAR Program events, and details on upcoming events. For additional information, contact David Kuehn at FHWA, 202-493-3414 (email: david.

kuehn@fhwa.dot.gov), or Terry Halkyard at FHWA, 202-493-3467 (email: terry.

halkyard@fhwa.dot.gov).
Publication No. 

FHWA-HRT-11-034

HRTM-04/01-10(1M)E

Learn More

For further information on funding programs visit www.trb.org/

researchfunding. For more information on FHWA’s EAR Program and 

future opportunities, contact David Kuehn at FHWA, 202-493-3414 

(email: david.kuehn@dot.gov).

Front cover photo credits, from left to right: 

© iStockphoto/thesuperph

© iStockphoto/YouraPechkin

© iStockphoto/Mlenny

© iStockphoto/zulufriend