Introduction
Department of Highway and Transportation Research Research
The Department of Highway and Transportation Research conducts public and private R&D in cooperative automated driving infrastructure technology, environment-friendly and decarbonization-oriented road paving technology, appropriate and mature technology-enabled international cooperation and regional issue management, and public-private projects executed at Korea's national road infrastructure performance testing facilities ("K-Road"). The field of cooperative automated driving infrastructure technology produces and enhances the infrastructure and services that level 4 cooperative automated driving requires, and is paving the way to level 5 cooperative automated driving. Environment-friendly and decarbonization-oriented road paving technology produces eco-friendly, smart, and digital roads through the use of road paving and management technologies that reduce particulate matter and carbon emissions. Application of appropriate and mature technology in international cooperation and regional issue management takes place through official development assistance (ODA) programs, and is aimed at globalization and social development through such measures as the creation of roads, fostering technological autonomy, and local government management of social issues, largely for the benefit of developing countries of the New Southern and Northern regions. "K-Road" is the name of Korea's government-operated road infrastructure performance testing facilities, which enable simulated climate testing, road testing, and paved or sloped surface testing among a range of advanced road testing types. The Department of Highway and Transportation Research's world-class efforts are producing the road and transportation technology of the future, which it shares for the balanced development of the world's mobility.
Major Research Areas
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Infrastructure and service development for smart mobility in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
- Cooperative automated driving and the supporting infrastructure
- Automated public transport with real-time demand response capabilities
- Future road planning and demonstration technology research for cooperative automated driving
- Dynamic information platforms for cooperative automated driving on city roads
- IoT in transportation safety strategies
- Road structures for automated vehicle safety
- Smart road technology for weather safety
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Sustainable and eco-friendly smart digital road paving technology
- Green, low-carbon paving materials and techniques
- Reduction of particulate matter in roadside areas with concentrated floating populations, and related testing
- IoT-enabled quality control of road paving sites
- Maintenance of high-performance concrete pavements
- Particulate matter reduction across all stages of road paving
- Operation of the Pavement Management System (PMS)
- Enhancement and commercialization of domestically developed foamed asphalt technology
- Research on practical technology of recycling of used eco-friendly warm mix pavements
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Modernization of the world's road building and management systems
- Support for the setup and localization operation of road and transportation research facilities in developing countries
- Transfer of road building technology to Southeast Asian countries (Cambodia, Laos, etc.)
- Support for Southeast Asian countries in achieving modernization and autonomy of road management
- Support for the setup and operation of smart city building technology cooperation centers in Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, etc.)
- Pavement performance enhancement based on geographic features
- Setup and operation technology research on pavement management systems through regional cooperation
- Research on Sustainable MaaS 3.0+ technology for farming and fishing communities
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Setting of testing-oriented transportation safety research tasks
- Operation of the core equipment of K-Road
- Enhancement of traffic object recognition technology and management of negative conditions for level 4 cooperative automated driving
- Road structures for automated vehicle safety
- Smart road technology for weather safety
- Reduction of road-produced particulate matter
- Green, low-carbon road paving technology
- Carbon neutral road technology for application to green automated driving
