APALACI

S&T Objectives

The objectives of this function field exploit the fact that technical systems are capable of reacting much faster than human drivers and therefore aim beyond the traditional approach of applying ADAS based systems.
In terms of Time to Collision four intervals can be identified: (i) The collision mitigation period between a few seconds (1-3 s, typically) and about 500 ms preceding the initial impact, (ii) the pre-crash period between 500 ms and 100 ms, where structural measures can effectively be applied, (iii) the pre-fire phase which lasts from about 100 ms to 10 ms before the crash and (iv) the pre-set phase which covers roughly the last 10 ms before an encounter.
The sub-projects undertaken in this functional field focus on all four intervals, thus offering benefits for road user safety in any crash situation and during any phase of a crash.
The scientific and technical objectives covered in APALACI for collision mitigation and pre-crash can be summarised as follows.

• Mitigate collision damage by autonomous or semi-autonomous braking to significantly reduce the kinetic impact energy by mutual adaptation and suitable combination of sensors and actuators to achieve integrated, actuator-powered collision mitigation systems.
• Develop pre-fire and pre-set applications directed towards the further optimisation of reversible (e.g., belt-pre-tensioning) and irreversible (e.g. airbags) restraint systems.
• Prevent truck drivers accelerating from stationary, when pedestrians or other VRUs are present in the blind spot area, in particular in front of the truck.
• Develop high performance sensor systems including real-time object classification by applying novel data fusion strategies to make use of the full information provided by different sensing technologies.
• Develop high-performance real-time algorithms, capable of reliably classifying pedestrians, two-wheelers, cars and trucks.

Objectives

The long term goal of the subproject APALACI is to achieve measurable improvements in terms of reduction of accident number and severity. In order to achieve this goal, APALACI develops advanced pre-crash and collision mitigation applications with pedestrian classification ability based on advanced sensor and data fusion techniques.

With respect to the sketch above reported, describing a kind of classification depending on the time to impact range, the objectives of the APALACI sub-project will cover applications related to:

1. Pre-crash functionality for improved controlling of restraint systems to get the best protection of car passengers immediately before an unavoidable crash, by the means of reversible restraints like belt pre-tensioning (Pre-fire application) and non-reversible systems (Pre-set application) -e.g. for improvement of air-bag countermeasures- ;
2. Longitudinal collision mitigation functionality to reduce the impact consequences as much as feasible (enhancement of the braking manoeuvre started by the driver after a warning);

   Moreover, as additional and explorative objectives, the APALACI subproject will develop:

    

3. Pedestrian recognition and warning function to prevent accidents, in particular in case of drivers distraction, by monitoring the area ahead the vehicle and early informing the driver about the presence of a pedestrian;
4. Start-inhibit function, addressing a truck specific problem to prevent the driver from accelerating from stationary when a vulnerable road user is present in the frontal area not visible to the driver.

With respect to the State of the Art (e.g. Chameleon and Protector European projects-5 FP, investigating possible sensor technologies for enabling applications related to the road user safety and protection), the APALACI sub-project addresses the following innovative steps to achieve the above described functions:

• development of advanced and robust data fusion concepts for monitoring the area close to the vehicles, and for pedestrian recognition scope with autonomous on board sensors;
• classification of obstacles by distinguishing among three classes: (i) vulnerable road users (pedestrian, two wheelers), (ii) vehicles, (iii) other objects/barriers;
• achievement of improved information data for enhanced controlling of different on-vehicle safety systems, like braking system, belt pre-tensioner, air-bags;
• adaptation of sensor technologies (short range radar, laser-scanner, ultrasonic, daytime and near infrared video systems) to achieve reliable and accurate detection of objects up to around 25 m in real time processing and not only in the range of some ms before an impact;
• achievement of robust and false tolerant safety functionality for a variety of different applications due to the exploitation of synergetic sensor systems sensing the same field of view (e.g. Near Infrared camera, short range radar, scanning lidar).

Our partners for this projects: