Health-Aware Edge Computing for Durable Autonomous Transportation

Across global markets, transportation systems are rapidly evolving toward automation, pervasive sensing, and intelligent decision-making capabilities. These advancements are often designed primarily around traditional metrics, such as safety, throughput, and cost. Modern autonomous and semi-autonomous systems introduce new types of human exposures (e.g., fatigues, cognitive stress, motion discomfort) and new system constraints (e.g., battery degradation, vibration-induced wear, thermal loads). If left unmanaged, these exposures degrade long-term system performance, reduce user trust and adoption, and impose hidden lifecycle and health costs. This project proposes a new research paradigm for Health-Aware and Durable Transportation Systems, enabling through advanced technologies in autonomous driving, edge computing, and optimized machine learning. We envision that transportation systems can be engineered to actively sense, model, and mitigate human and mechanical exposures, turning transportation into a joint human-machine health ecosystem. The research objectives include: 1) develop joint occupant/vehicle exposure models that quantify health and mechanical burdens, 2) enable adaptive autonomy strategies that mitigate cognitive stress, fatigue, and mechanical wear, and 3) build edge computing framework for efficient inference and control.

• Record URL:
  • https://transportation.umkc.edu/project/health-aware-edge-computing-for-durable-autonomous-transportation

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $70,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348335

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Department of Transportation

  Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Performing Organizations:

  Center for Healthy and Durable Transportation

  University of Missouri Kansas City
  Kansas City, Missouri  United States  64110
• Principal Investigators:

  Zhao, Xinghui

• Start Date: 20260101
• Expected Completion Date: 20261201
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Distributed processing; Human factors; Intelligent transportation systems; Social factors
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Safety and Human Factors; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01987035
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Healthy and Durable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348335
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Apr 23 2026 5:32PM