Prototype design and experimental evaluation of wireless measurement nodes for road safety

•An innovative infrastructure called Wireless Active Guardrail System (WAGS) is presented.•We propose measurement nodes for increasing traffic safety.•The prototypes design for speed and proximity measurement nodes are shown.•We present the measurement characterization of prototypes of measurement nodes.•Their experimental evaluation are reported and discussed.

The paper presents the design and the experimental evaluation of prototypes of measurement nodes that are part of the Wireless Active Guardrail System (WAGS). The WAGS is an innovative infrastructure, allowing increasing traffic safety on roads, by monitoring vehicle speed, proximity between vehicle and guardrail, impact of a vehicle with the guardrail, and several environmental parameters. In particular, in this paper, the designs and prototypes of the nodes dealing with speed and proximity measurements are presented. Then, all the phases of their experimental evaluation are reported and discussed.