  The assessment of highly-risky situations at road intersections have been
recently revealed as an important research topic within the context of the
automotive industry. In this paper we shall introduce a novel approach to
compute risk functions by using a combination of a highly non-linear processing
model in conjunction with a powerful information encoding procedure.
Specifically, the elements of information either static or dynamic that appear
in a road intersection scene are encoded by using directed positional acyclic
labeled graphs. The risk assessment problem is then reformulated in terms of an
inductive learning task carried out by a recursive neural network. Recursive
neural networks are connectionist models capable of solving supervised and
non-supervised learning problems represented by directed ordered acyclic
graphs. The potential of this novel approach is demonstrated through well
predefined scenarios. The major difference of our approach compared to others
is expressed by the fact of learning the structure of the risk. Furthermore,
the combination of a rich information encoding procedure with a generalized
model of dynamical recurrent networks permit us, as we shall demonstrate, a
sophisticated processing of information that we believe as being a first step
for building future advanced intersection safety systems
