Pressemitteilungen 2018 und älter

Thursday, November 08, 2018 · 404 words · 2777 characters

The Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) of the RWTH Aachen University develops new occupant protection principles for highly automated vehicles within EU funded project OSCCAR.

The new EU Horizon 2020 research project “OSCCAR - Future Occupant Safety for Crashes in Cars” develops a novel approach to improve the safety for all occupants involved in future accidents with autonomous vehicles. Future automated vehicles will be able to temporarily or even fully perform the driving task offering the passenger the freedom for other activities. This will result in a growing demand for alternative interior concepts and new, more comfortable seating positions for work, communication or relaxation (e. g. rearward facing or highly reclined), leading to new challenges for the protection of the passenger in a crash.

Based on the analysis of future relevant accident scenarios OSCCAR will develop and demonstrate advanced occupant protection principles to address these challenges. The introduction of automated vehicles will lead to changes in the relevant accident scenarios (mixed traffic, new crash scenarios, pre-crash-kinematics of automated active safety systems etc.). At the same time, changes in passenger demographics (diversification, aging population etc.) should be taken into account to protect all passengers in an optimal way. The resulting increasing complexity requires an emphasis on virtual methods for the development and assessment of future advanced passenger protection systems. OSCCAR will thus provide a unique framework with improved, omni-directionally biofidelic, active and robust human body models (HBMs), considering gender and demographic factors as well as improved soft tissues material properties. Furthermore, OSCCAR will develop fully integrated assessment methods for complex test scenarios of the complete pre-crash and in-crash phase.

Within OSCCAR researchers of ika will focus on:

• Implementation of a user study on future seating positons and expected side tasks in automated vehicles
• Definition of representative sitting positions and side tasks as “test cases”
• Identification of viable protection principles (e. g. new airbag position or geometry, new belt systems, active seat repositioning)
• Physical and virtual demonstration of selected protection principles

Due to its excellent partner consortium with key players from industry and research from Europe, North America and Asia, OSCCAR is in the position to ensure global future deployment and application of its results and achievements. The project is coordinated by Virtual Vehicle Research Center in Graz/Austria and will run from June 2018 until May 2021.