Knowledge-based systems applications for intelligent transportation systems

Although ITS promises a more efficient and safer transportation system, there exist significant risks that may compromise that promise. To date, the focus of the United States' ITS program has been on developing the ITS infrastructure, often referred to as ITI (intelligent transportation infrastructure). The ITI is composed primarily of hardware, such as sensors and communications media, which is intended to collect and transmit data. However, software support systems, which process these data, have received less attention in national ITS development. Such software support systems are critical in that they provide the true "intelligence" in ITS. There exist several unexplored, but critical. areas of research on knowledge-based software systems - and thus there is a need to examine and identify those areas. This paper provides an overview of past and current efforts to apply knowledge-based systems to intelligent transportation systems and examines the areas of greatest potential for these systems applied to ITS.