CERM

Center for European Research on Mobility

The project CERM aims at developing a modular test environment for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication at RWTH Aachen University, which will be the basis for further research in this area. For this means, suitable communication technology is being set up at the test track of Aldenhoven Testing Center GmbH, taking the most relevant wireless standards into account. A modular intersection system, consisting of various dummy buildings, is built up to allow for investigating traffic and communication-based functions in urban environment as realistically as possible. The fields of action safety, efficiency and driving comfort are addressed and assessed by means of suitable test facilities like connected traffic lights or vehicle and pedestrian dummies. The findings from real-world tests are transferred to a simulation environment and extrapolated to a wider scale of transport areas. The interdisciplinary research project with the participation of the institutes COMM, I11, ICE, IFS, IHF, IRT and ISB is coordinated by ika and has a duration of 4 years.

In the project the following activities are foreseen:

• Implementation of communication technology with world-wide available communication standards (DSRC, LTE, 802.11p, etc.)
• Construction of multiple research intersections with variable and solid dummy buildings for imitating sight obstruction and radio shadowing
• Installation of multiple WiFi access points and road side units to connect road users
• Flexible design of the traffic area (variable road and pavement width, various lane markings, etc.)
• Implementation of relevant urban accident scenarios (roundabouts, various intersections, pedestrian crosswalks, etc.)
• Detection and tracking of all road users (vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, etc.) by means of reference sensors
• Central data management and interface to simulation environments
• Installation of various dummies (vehicles and pedestrians) with actuators to ensure a reproducible test set up
• Subject tests to investigate the interaction between (partly) automated vehicles and pedestrians
• Assessment of cooperative driver assistance systems