A 5G Roadside Infrastructure Assisting Connected and Automated Vehicles in Vulnerable Road User Protection

Road safety is one of the major concerns when considering road vehicles, with issues referring to both drivers and Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) (e.g., pedestrians). The role of roadside infrastructures in augmenting VRU protection is gaining popularity thanks to the development of smart and connected sensing systems, which enable the detection of critical events and their forwarding to nearby Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) by Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications. In this context, the fifth generation (5G) of mobile radio networks is emerging as the communication enabler for advanced V2X services for CAVs. In this work we propose the design, development, and assessment on road of a 5G roadside infrastructure for VRU protection, performing an in-depth analysis of the single components and their integration into the service. More specifically, we present a Roadside Unit (RSU) capable to detect, localize, and track VRUs; a communication architecture that exploits 5G V2X connectivity for sending VRUs detections; a CAV with on-board algorithms warning the driver of the presence of the VRU and an Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) solution triggered by the 5G V2X architecture. We validate the efficacy of the proposed solution in a road scenario inside the campus of Politecnico di Milano.