SAVE-U: First Experiences with a Pre-Crash System for Enhancing Pedestrian Safety
Marc-Michael Meinecke · 2005
This paper presents first results of the project SAVE-U (Sensors and system Architecture for VulnerablE road Users protection). It has been funded by the European Commission (EC) in the period between 2002 and 2005 (5 th IST framework program). The goal of this project is to enhance the safety of pedestrians in hazardous traffic situations (see Figure 1) (3). To be able to do this, special active countermeasures (actuators) can be integrated into the vehicles. This paper deals with a sensors system which is able to deploy such actuators in critical situations in a suitable way for the driver. Radar sensors (SiemensVDO/ Germany), color cameras and infrared cameras (CEA/ France) mounted into demonstrator vehicles observe the scene in the frontal area. The information of the individual sensors is fused and applied to a deployment algorithm for a braking system. In case of a dangerous situation the vehicle brakes automatically to decrease the vehicle speed and to increase the safety of the pedestrian. Two car manufacturers (Volkswagen (see Figure 4) (3) and DaimlerChrysler (9), both Germany) equipped their cars with this sensor platform for recognizing pedestrians and developed algorithms to provide their individual protection strategy. Both vehicles are tested by MIRA/ UK. This paper presents the first results of tests with the SAVE-U system in the Volkswagen vehicle.