AsPeCSS

Assessment methodologies for forward looking integrated pedestrian and further extension to cyclist safety systems

In spite of continuously improved safety measures in cars, pedestrians and cyclists are still particularly at risk. In 2009, pedestrians have been accounting for more than 19 % of road fatalities in the EU. Many of these accidents are caused by unalert drivers and can hence be avoided by introducing active pedestrian safety systems. For this reason, the project AsPeCSS, which is co-funded by the European Commission, aims at supporting the deployment of such systems by developing a test procedure that allows for transparently assessing active pedestrian safety systems. This test procedure can for example be used in the Euro NCAP rating. Instead of an exclusive evaluation of passive safety measures, as practiced in conventional crash tests, the interdependency between active and passive safety is considered.

In order to be able to perform a thorough assessment, the project develops a methodology which allows for a combined evaluation of active and passive safety measures. For passive safety assessment, simulations are performed to investigate the correlation between injury risk and collision speed for different impact points. In order to incorporate active safety measures into the assessment, test scenarios are derived from real-world accident data. Furthermore, a test procedure is developed which enables to evaluate the system performance in these scenarios. For that purpose, test tools like a pedestrian dummy and a propulsion system are specified. Additionally, the driver behavior is modeled and also considered in the test protocol. By means of the defined test procedure, the velocity reduction caused by the safety system can be determined. This test procedure is amended by additional tests for evaluation of unjustified system responses.

ika is involved in the development of the driver model. Since active pedestrian safety systems operate within the control loop driver – vehicle – environment, a reasonable system assessment cannot be performed without taking the driver reaction into account. This has for example influence if a system warns the driver without intervening actively. In a first step, a model describing the driver behavior is defined. This driver model is validated and parameterized in a subject study at ika driving simulator. Furthermore, simulations with human body models are performed at ika in order to investigate the influence of impact conditions on the pedestrian’s injury risk.

The project has started in September 2011, and its duration is 30 months. The total project costs amount to 3.88 million Euros. The European commission bears 2.37 million Euros.

Beside ika, 11 partners from 7 countries are involved in this project:
Applus+ IDIADA, Autoliv Development, Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, BMW Group, Bosch, Humanetics, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Toyota, TRL, TRW, Uniresearch

AsPeCSS-Logo

Contact

Timo Woopen M.Sc.
Manager Research Area
Vehicle Intelligence & Automated Driving
+49 241 80 23549
Email

Project duration

09/2011 – 02/2014

Project partner

ika, Applus+ IDIADA, Autoliv Development, Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, BMW Group, Bosch, Humanetics, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Toyota, TRL, TRW, Uniresearch

Supported by

[Logo: Europäische Union]

Address

Institute for Automotive Engineering
RWTH Aachen University
Steinbachstraße 7
52074 Aachen · Germany

office@ika.rwth-aachen.de
+49 241 80 25600

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