In 2010, according to the World Health Organization, more than one quarter of the world’s road traffic deaths involved pedestrians and cyclists. This fact showed the magnitude of the problem and the need to take action.
The past decade has seen significant progress in
active pedestrian safety as a result of advances in video and radar technology. In the intelligent vehicle domain, this has recently culminated in the market introduction of the first generation of active pedestrian safety systems.
PROSPECT will significantly improve the effectiveness of active VRU (Vulnerable Road Users) safety systems by expanding the scope of VRU scenarios addressed and enabling better performance of the systems.
The objective is to provide a better understanding of VRU-related accidents and to develop, demonstrate and test innovative active safety systems. The project will cover the entire spectrum of in-depth accident analysis, sensor processing, modelling and situation analysis, human-machine interface (HMI), driver warning and vehicle control, testing equipment, functional tests, user acceptance, and benefit/effectiveness estimation.
To achieve the overall goal of VRU accident reduction, PROSPECT targets five key objectives across multiple domains:
- Better understanding of relevant VRU accident scenarios
- Improved VRU sensing and situational analysis
- Advanced HMI and vehicle control strategies
- Four vehicle demonstrators, one transportable mobile driving simulator and realistic VRU dummy specimen provided by leading EU industry partners for validation and effectiveness analysis
- Testing in realistic traffic scenarios, system performance assessment of the novel VRU active safety functions and user acceptance study
Consortium
The project will be implemented by a European consortium formed by several stakeholders and led by Applus+ IDIADA. The consortium includes all the European OEMs (BMW, Daimler, TME and Volvo Cars) currently offering AEB (autonomous emergency braking) for VRU. Together with AUDI, they are the keenest to introduce the next generation systems in the market. Bosch and CONTI will contribute with next generation components and intervention concepts. Video algorithms will be developed by the University of Amsterdam and Daimler. Driver interaction aspects (HMI) are considered by the University of Nottingham and IFSTTAR. 3 out of 7 Euro NCAP test labs (IDIADA, BASt, TNO) will define and validate test procedures and propose standardization to Euro NCAP and UN-ECE. Accident research will be performed by Chalmers, VTI and the University of Budapest, based on major in-depth accident databases (GIDAS and iGlad) and complemented by East Europe data.
Results
PROSPECT will build on experiences gained with first generation
AEB-PED systems currently on the market. Four vehicles will be built to demonstrate the key achievements of the project and to validate the effectiveness of the improvements. The demonstrator vehicles will be tested in
proving grounds in relevant scenarios using appropriate test equipment.
From the results of the project the following products will be developed:
- New sensor concepts and operation modes for AEB VRU systems
- New generation of AEB VRU systems fitted in passenger cars
- Test and assessment methods for Euro NCAP AEB VRU systems
- Test tools for AEB VRU development/testing