- Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology to pilot KOSMOS in Canada

- System detects hazards and warns drivers in real time

A concept diagram of KOSMOS (Korea Smart Road Safety Packages), a smart road safety system designed for nighttime and severe weather conditions. [Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology]
A concept diagram of KOSMOS (Korea Smart Road Safety Packages), a smart road safety system designed for nighttime and severe weather conditions. [Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology]

Roads that detect dense fog, heavy snow and icy surfaces on their own — and warn drivers in real time — are moving from domestic testing to the harsh winters of Canada. A smart road safety technology developed and verified in South Korea is set to undergo performance trials in a country known for extreme cold and frequent blizzards, with an eye toward certification, public procurement and eventual entry into the North American market.

The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology announced Monday that it will upgrade its nighttime and severe-weather road safety technology to suit Canadian climate and road conditions, then pursue local demonstration and commercialization.

The institute's road and transportation research division has branded the package KOSMOS — Korea Smart Road Safety Packages. The goal is to bundle domestically developed road safety technologies into a single system optimized for Canada's climate, terrain and traffic environment.

The package centers on two core components: a pedestrian safety enhancement system and a severe-weather hazard response system.

The pedestrian safety enhancement system uses LED crosswalk lighting and LED road markers to help drivers spot pedestrians more easily at night or in the rain.

The severe-weather hazard response system relies on visibility meters and road-surface sensors to detect fog, snowfall and ice. When a hazard is identified, the system relays real-time warnings to drivers through LED variable message signs and road markers. Rather than leaving drivers to spot and react to danger themselves, the system takes a proactive approach — the road detects the hazard first and issues the alert.

The project is being pursued as what the institute calls a "performance-diffusion R&BD" model, which takes domestic land and transport research and development results, redesigns them for overseas conditions and carries them through to commercialization.

The research team plans to improve the equipment's durability and reliability so it can operate stably in Canada's punishing road environment — sub-zero temperatures, snow accumulation, road salt and fog. The team aims to raise the technology readiness level from its current level 6 to level 9, the threshold for full commercial deployment, by the time the project concludes.

Field demonstrations will focus on British Columbia and Alberta. Candidate sites include Metro Vancouver, Edmonton in Alberta and areas near the Rocky Mountains.

The trials will quantitatively verify pedestrian safety, driver visibility, speed compliance and driving safety, as well as operational reliability in extreme cold. The institute then plans to link the results to local certification and public procurement as a pathway into the North American market.

"We will build an internationally collaborative commercialization model that validates our accumulated land and transport R&D results in Canada's extreme cold and severe weather, and establishes them in the local market," said Park Seon-gyu, president of the institute. "We will connect the Canadian demonstration outcomes to public procurement and commercialization, and develop this into a landmark case for Korean road safety technology entering the North American market."


nbgkoo@heraldcorp.com