SBIR Phase I: Infrastructure-to-Everything (I2X) Communication Technology for Autonomous and Connected Vehicle Support

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to enhance the robustness and security of infrastructure-to-everything (I2X) communications through the use of a hybrid wireless technology that can be embedded inside civil infrastructure. The technology could augment the sensing modality of existing autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles by improving the overall system efficiency, security, and robustness under uncertain driving conditions.

The technology could be used to mitigate adversarial manipulation and tampering of infrastructural landmarks like traffic signs and could also be used as a fallback mechanism when geo-navigation signals are unavailable. The technology will also provide a flexible integration platform for state and federal stakeholders to enforce new guidelines and checkpointing standards.

The technology will be flexible enough to implement new communication protocols that can lower the barrier for other mobility-based businesses to enter the autonomous driving market. In addition to mobility applications, infrastructure owners and state/federal departments of transportation (DoTs) could use this technology for large-scale interrogation of structural health monitoring sensors.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop an embedded hybrid radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based system for infrastructure-to-everything (I2X) communications. A major challenge to implementing embedded I2X devices is the limited availability of power. It is not feasible to replace batteries when the devices are deployed in asphalt or concrete structures or underneath a bridge-deck.

This problem is solved by the proposed technology using a hybrid system that combines the long lifetime of passive RFID tags with low-latency of their active counterparts. This project will: (1) characterize the radio-frequency energy required to enable I2X communications;(2) evaluate the energy available for embedded wireless devices that adhere to Federal Communications Commission regulations; (3) build commercial-ready devices that can survive the embedding and the compaction process; (4) develop basic software to support meaningful information exchange with the embedded I2X prototypes; and (5) verify prototypes in small scale field deployment studies.

The end goal of the project will be to develop the I2X prototype using commodity electronics while still achieving an at-scale price point that is cheaper than the cost of the construction material used in road surfaces and in other civil infrastructure.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.