The goal of this project was to understand the effectiveness of light emitting diode (LED) based lights for replacement of the standard strobes on Mn/DOT snow plows and to develop a set of specifications for LED based snow plow strobe lights. Intensity measurements were performed along with field testing in order to understand the correlation between optical power output of the lights and the conspicuity of the lights under typical viewing conditions. A robust correlation between intensity and conspicuity was not established, but we were able to make a qualitative connection between intensity and conspicuity for the LED based lights under the conditions tested. The results suggest that LED based lights are comparable in conspicuity to the standard strobe lights currently used on Mn/DOT plows, under specific conditions. We found that when viewed from a direction corresponding to that typical of a vehicle approaching from the rear; the LED based lights were equally conspicuous as the standard strobe. However, when viewed from other angles the standard strobe outperforms the LED lights in field tests. A specification was not completed, but recommendations were made for possible improvements to LED based lights to improve field test results.
