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A TEST PROGRAMME FOR ACTIVE VEHICLE SAFETY – DETAILED DISCUSSION OF THE EVALUE TESTING PROTOCOLS FOR LONGITUDINAL AND STABILITY FUNCTIONALITY Micha Lesemann Lucía Isasi Adrian Zlocki Tecnalia Transport Institut für Kraftfahrzeuge (ika) Spain RWTH Aachen University Henrik Eriksson Germany Jan Jacobson Josep Maria Dalmau SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden Applus IDIADA Group Sweden Spain Lars Nordström Mauro Vesco Volvo Technology Corporation Centro Ricerche Fiat Sweden Italy Daniel Westhoff Mattias Hjort SICK AG VTI Germany Sweden Paper Number 11-0061 ABSTRACT tors has been identified and proposed by the project consortium for further investigation. Active safety functions are massively implemented into new vehicle generations and offer a high po- The proposed new and highly needed test pro- tential in decreasing road accidents. While testing gramme allows a first assessment of the overall and rating of passive vehicle safety are based on safety performance potential of a vehicle with re- established and accepted methods and programmes, spect to active safety. However, the eVALUE con- no test programme is available for active vehicle sortium only defined the test methods while thresh- safety today. Thus, it is difficult to assess the per- olds for specific indicator values and the derivation formance of those functions for industry, legisla- of final quantitative overall test results are not tion and further stakeholders. In particular, the end specified. This is left to the competence of every customer cannot judge active safety of different institution adopting the test methods and actually vehicles based on easy-to-understand ratings as applying them in order to assess different vehicles. they are offered by different NCAP programmes We believe that results gained from our programme for passive safety. In our opinion, this leads to a will increase the public awareness for active safety relatively low awareness of active safety functions functions and foster the development within the and hinders a higher market penetration. industry. However, the project partners also identi- fied and expressed additional research need beyond From January 2008 until December 2010, the the scope of the project, e.g. regarding accident European research project eVALUE has been statistics and driver behaviour models. working on objective testing and evaluation meth- ods for active safety functions. According to inves- INTRODUCTION tigated statistics and databases, critical and acci- dent-prone driving situations have been identified Modern society strongly depends on mobility, and that represent the majority of accidents, where the need for transport of both people and goods is active safety functions can come into effect. The expected to grow in the future. Cleaner, safer and methods are mainly based on physical testing of the more efficient transport systems are needed. Mobil- full vehicle and do not take into account the influ- ity and especially road transport cause major socie- ence of a single function, but rather the response of tal problems: accidents, pollution and congestions. the vehicle as such. Intensive physical testing and More than 34,000 lives were lost in 2009 due to application of the test protocols was performed in road accidents in the European Union only [1], and order to validate and improve the methods pro- the costs are estimated to be about 2 % of its GDP. posed by the consortium. The development of road vehicles during the past Another important topic concerns indicators, which decade has led to vehicles with improved passive show potential to assess the safety benefit by dif- safety. Systems of airbags, seat belts and protective ferent active safety functions. Here, a major chal- structures have increased safety for the drivers, lenge was given by the lack of required input data, passengers and lately also pedestrians. Testing i.e. detailed accident statistics. A first set of indica- programmes for assessment of these passive safety measures have been established. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Lesemann 1 Active Safety Passive Safety Hazard Prevention Damage Reduction Hazard Detection Hazard Avoidance Hazard Mitigation Crash inevitable Crash Time NCAP Programmes Figure 1. Timeline of Active and Passive Safety Over the last years, active safety functions have testing of it. They give a baseline for the assess- been massively implemented into new vehicle ment of the active safety performance of a vehicle. generations, offering a high potential in decreasing However, thresholds for specific values have not road accidents. While testing and rating of the been specified by the consortium. passive safety of vehicles are based on established and accepted methods and programmes, no such While some procedures are soon ready for imple- are available for active safety of cars or trucks mentation, some others require additional work that today. Thus, it is difficult to assess the performance was out of scope for the project. These open re- of such functions for industry, legislation and fur- search needs are summarised in the end. ther stakeholders. In particular, the customer cannot compare the active safety provided by different OBJECTIVES vehicles based on easy-to-understand ratings as they are offered by different new car assessment Performance test results presented to the public will programmes (NCAPs), see Figure 1. help to understand the benefit of active safety func- tions. This has e.g. also been underlined by the The main focus of the European research project European eSafetyForum working group on Re- "Testing and Evaluation Methods for ICT-based search and Technological Development in their Safety Systems (eVALUE)" was to define objective "Recommendations on Forthcoming Research and methods for the assessment of vehicle active safety. Development" [2]. Since the start of the project, several other initia- tives have identified this need for standardised By this means, also the research and development testing and assessment methods. Although some of of new safety functions is encouraged. Accord- these projects are on-going, similar methods have ingly, the long-term goal was and must be to agree been presented recently and a worldwide harmoni- on testing protocols that will be used by all in- sation process is required. volved stakeholders. This has already proven to be an effective way in terms of promoting passive The eVALUE consortium consisted of eight part- safety [3]. ners from four European countries and was led by the Institut für Kraftfahrzeuge (ika) of RWTH However, the eVALUE project did not perform any Aachen University. Partners were Centro Ricerche activities which would have led to a direct stan- FIAT (Italy) and Volvo Technology Corporation dardisation of the methods developed. Furthermore, (Sweden), contributing as OEMs, SICK AG (Ger- there were no pass or fail criteria defined for the many) as a sensor supplier, SP Technical Research different performance values. The clear focus was Institute of Sweden and Statens Väg- och Trans- on objective and repeatable methods while rating portforskningsinstitut (VTI) as research organisa- remains to the potential users of these methods or tions from Sweden and Tecnalia Transport and methods based on the ones developed by the IDIADA Automotive Technology from Spain as eVALUE project. research and testing suppliers. It must also be underlined that certain limitations The test methods investigated and defined by the apply to the scope of the project given by the lim- eVALUE project are compiled in protocols for both ited time and resources that were available. Fig- inspection of the subject vehicle as well as physical ure 2 highlights this scope in the context of safety __________________________________________________________________________________________ Lesemann 2 performance analysis, which is based on real life relevant scenarios have been derived that represent accidents. The derivation of scenarios that represent the majority of accidents in which active safety dangerous traffic situations and the development of functions could possibly mitigate the outcome. test methods based on those scenarios were part of the eVALUE project, while performance rating and A vehicle will be assessed by applying these novel subsequently an estimation of the safety impact methods and evaluating it in the identified accident- could not be covered. This safety impact would in prone scenarios under controlled testing conditions. the end have an effect on the accidents, thus closing The scenarios shall be recognisable by the end the circle. customer as critical situations that can happen dur- ing normal driving. One example is approaching METHODOLOGY suddenly congesting traffic. The benefit of active safety functions like automatic braking will then In 2007, the ASTE study [4] investigated the feasi- become apparent. bility of performance testing for active safety func- tions. In addition, required methods and principles for verification and validation of those functions Accidents were investigated. Therefore, three different ap- proaches were considered. Relevant Scenarios The system approach is based on the capabilities of specific systems and mapped to traffic scenarios. Performance of the different systems with similar Step 1 Inspection functions is then assessed. Testing & Evaluation Step 2 The scenario approach is directly based on traffic Methods scenarios. The vehicle is tested as a black-box

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