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Development
of an innovative sensor platform that will operate three different technologies
(24 GHz radar, IR and video cameras) and will fuse data for an optimised
Vulnerable Road User (VRU) detection.
Definition
and implementation of driver warning and vehicle control strategies to
avoid, or at least minimise, the impact of a crash.
Definition
of active VRU protection strategies in case the crash cannot be avoided.
Performance
evaluation of the sensors platform and of the effective impact of the
overall system.
Objectives
Every year there are in the EU around 9 000 deaths and 200 000 injured victims in road accidents in which pedestrians and cyclists collide with a car.
Pedestrian accidents represent the second largest source of traffic-related
injuries and fatalities.
A
typical dangerous situation of a child suddenly crossing the street -
the angst scenario of each driver
Initiatives to improve safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) have started
on both national and European levels. SAVE-U is a large innovative European
project aimed at developing an integrated safety concept for VRUs such
as pedestrians and cyclists.
The project deals with 3 different stages:
- Detection of VRUs at sufficient distance covering a relevant set of
scenarios,
- Definition and implementation of driver warning and vehicle control
strategies in order to avoid, or at least minimise, the impact of a crash,
- Definition of (vehicle-mounted) VRU protection strategies in case the
crash cannot be avoided.
During the first part of the project, the novel sensor platform will be
optimised for the detection of unprotected road users by means of low
level and high level sensor fusion in order to reliably operate in relevant
scenarios and to fulfil the strong requirements of an active safety system.
The second part of the project deals with the development and implementation
of the algorithms for data fusion, the integration of the entire sensor
platform, the equipment of demonstrator vehicles as well as with the evaluation
of the developments including the integrated system approach.
Description of work
Based on the analysis of relevant situations with VRUs (a database will
be recorded in various European cities), the analysis of the appearance
of the dressed human body for the sensing technologies considered, as
well as on the basis of the advanced concepts for actuators to protect
passengers and the know-how in terms of collision avoidance functions,
SAVE-U will define suitable protection system concepts. Accordingly, a
novel SAVE-U sensor platform will be realised that will operate three
different technologies and will fuse data for an optimised VRU detection:
- Several 24 GHz radar sensors will be used in parallel. Multi-sensor
processing algorithms will be developed in order to operate the individual
single beam sensors in the radar network
- Merging the information from un-cooled IR and video cameras will offer
the possibility for reliable and precise detection in all weather conditions.
Dedicated image segmentation algorithms and a new design for the IR camera
will be developed.
Block
diagram of the high performance sensor platform required for the realisation
of systems to protect vulnerable road users (ROI: region of interest)
To
achieve real time operation, an embedded image processing platform (EIP)
will be developed. Multi-cue vision-based algorithms for the classification
of vulnerable traffic participants will be studied, e.g. combining stereo,
motion, shape and texture in one system. Closed loop tracking strategies
will be implemented in order to improve detection performance by means
of prediction.
SAVE-U will utilise sensor fusion both at low and at high level. High
level data fusion alone is not sufficient to provide the required quality
and reliability of the target data. SAVE-U will introduce a novel concept
of low level data fusion. Sensor data from an early stage of the data
processing will be exchanged between the image processing part and the
radar processing part of the sensor platform.
At the end of the project, two vehicle demonstrators will be equipped
with prototypes of the innovative sensor platform and with the novel driver
warning and vehicle control strategies.
An
innovative dynamic validation technique shall be developed to demonstrate
the performance of the new sensor platform.
Sensor
Evaluation Test Vehicle
Performance
evaluation will demonstrate the effective impact of the overall system
on VRU safety in the relevant traffic scenarios.
Dissemination of results will take place mainly by means of the web site
www.save-u.org and relevant congresses. |
