Approach
Today, a number of passive and active safety systems as well as intelligent driver support systems are already in the market. A trend towards more pro-active and increasingly integrated safety systems is apparent. The performance of all these systems is affected substantially by the properties of the vehicle itself. For instance, such vehicle properties include tire characteristics, vehicle dynamics behaviour and friction potential in road/tire contact. Also the control strategy and algorithm quality of the active safety systems can improve the performance towards accident free traffic.
In 2007, the ASTE study [ASTE, 2007] has investigated the feasibility of performance testing for active safety systems. In addition, it aimed at needed methods and principles for verification and validation of those systems. Therefore, different approaches were considered. The system approach is based on the capabilities of specific systems and mapped to traffic scenarios. Performance of the different systems with similar functions is then assessed.
The scenario approach is directly based on traffic scenarios. The vehicle is tested as a black-box and its overall performance in those scenarios is determined. As a third option, a document-based approach was discussed. This could complement physical testing and might be particularly valuable for HMI testing.
According to the conclusions of the study, vehicle active safety shall be tested following the scenario-based approach. It was further stated that performance testing of active safety systems is technically and economically feasible and that a consensus between different stakeholders will be possible. The importance of communicating test results in a very simple way was underlined.
The eVALUE project is a direct follow-up of this study. Most partners are now part of the eVALUE consortium. Together, objective methods are developed, enabling the estimation of the safety impact the regarded active safety systems have.
Figure 1 gives an overview of the approach for the development of the testing and evaluation methods. Based on accident statistics, relevant scenarios have been derived that represent the majority of accidents in which active safety systems could possibly mitigate the outcome. A vehicle will be assessed by applying the procedures. Those shall be recognisable also by the end customer as critical situations that can happen at any time. One example is approaching suddenly congesting traffic or a similar, non-moving obstacle. The benefit of active safety systems (e.g. by automatic braking in this case) will thus be even more clear.
Figure 1. Scientific Approach for Assessment Development
Assessing the active safety of vehicles includes the interaction with the environment/infra-structure and driver actions. For both testing the vehicle as a whole and the systems in detail, relevant scenarios have been found and defined.
References
EU study ASTE: Feasibility Study for the Setting-up of a Performance Testing Programme for ICT-based Safety Systems for Road Transport. Göteborg, 2007
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 215607.
This publication solely reflects the author’s views. The European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.