Steve Smith


Smart Safety Connection Seminar - Steve Smith - 3.29.24

Apr 1, 2024

In this talk, we summarize recent work aimed at providing vulnerable road users with technology support for safer movement through urban environments. We start by describing the current status of PedPal, a smartphone app developed to assist pedestrians with disabilities in crossing signalized intersections. We discuss recent work focused (1) on integrating PedPal's core capabilities with complementary way-finding techniques to support broader planning and execution of the user’s complete trip, and (2) on expanding the PedPal API to enable interoperability with conventional traffic signal control systems in addition to intersections controlled by the surtrac smart signal system, to lower the barrier to widespread deployment. We then outline current plans to carry out a pilot deployment of the PedPal+ system. We conclude by outlining our engagement in the 1.B phase of DOT’s Intersection Safety Challenge.Stephen F. Smith is a Research Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, where he heads the Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory. Smith’s research focuses broadly on the theory and practice of next-generation technologies for automated planning, scheduling, and control of large multi-actor systems. He pioneered the development and use of constraint-based search and optimization models for solving planning and scheduling problems and has successfully fielded AI-based planning and scheduling systems in a range of application domains. His more recent work on smart traffic signals, which combines concepts from artificial intelligence and traffic theory, led to the development of Surtrac - an innovative decentralized system for real-time urban traffic signal control. In 2015, Smith co-founded Rapid Flow Technologies Inc. to commercialize the Surtrac technology. It is now deployed in over 20 North American cities, and in October 2022, Rapid Flow Technologies was acquired by Miovision Inc. Smith’s current work in this area focuses on making smart traffic signals smarter and safer through integration with real-time traveler-to-infrastructure communication, and on using these advances as a basis for establishing more sustainable transportation infrastructure funding models. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and in 2022 became President Elect of AAAI.
 
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