Testing and Evaluation Methods for Active Vehicle Safety

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Final Demonstration Event and Workshop

After almost three years of intensive research and development, the eVALUE consortium presented its final testing protocols for active safety functions during a demonstration event on 24 and 25 November 2010 at the IDIADA proving ground in Santa Oliva/Spain. About 50 dedicated experts representing the automotive industry, testing organisations, governing and legislative institutions as well as research organisations and academia were present and intensively discussed the approach and results of the project.

The event consisted of both theoretical and practical sessions. In the beginning, Francisco Ferreira of the European Commission, ICT for Transport, and Alessandro Coda, Research Coordinator of EUCAR, the European Council for Automotive R&D, put the eVALUE project in the framework and context of current European automotive research:

Francisco Ferreira - EC Priorities on ICT for Transport

Alessandro Coda - EUCAR Activities in Integrated Safety

Afterwards Micha Lesemann, the project coordinator of ika, introduced the project with an overview to all participants. This included the general scope and limitations of the project, the chosen approach and a summary of other related initiatives in the field of active safety testing as well as a first outlook on future research needs that was identified by the project:

Micha Lesemann - eVALUE Project Introduction

Throughout the project, the development of testing methods and protocols was divided in three different clusters. Each cluster represented certain functionality with regard to active safety. In particular, these clusters were covering longitudinal, lateral and stability functions. In the related theoretical sessions, the covered functionalities and current systems as well as identified critical scenarios including their relevance for traffic safety were presented. This was followed by an explanation of the test procedure, the different test cases as well as experiences gained during the validation test sessions within the project. Each theoretical session was followed by a practical session during which examples of the test procedures were given on the IDIADA test track. A plenary discussion of the test protocols proposed by the eVALUE consortium concluded each cluster session:

Håkan Andersson - eVALUE Longitudinal Functionality Introduction

Rafael Basso - eVALUE Lateral Functionality Introduction

Josep Maria Dalmau - eVALUE Stability Functionality Introduction

Especially regarding the assessment of active safety in the longitudinal direction, several other initiatives  have been formed since the start of the eVALUE project. As they mainly are focussing on this domain, they are able to develop more detailed test procedures than eVALUE with its limited time and budget, e.g. by means of a detailed investigation of required target objects. However, they all have in common that they are partly building on and referencing to eVALUE results.

During the final eVALUE event, Andrés Aparicio of IDIADA and Michael Stanzel of VW gave an overview of two of the most important initiatives:

Andrés Aparicio - Assessment of Vehicle Safety Systems (ASSESS)

Michael Stanzel - Advanced Forward-Looking Safety Systems (vFSS)

The event was concluded by a summary discussion which was moderated by Pierre Castaing of UTAC. In the beginning, he presented some very recent results concerning frontal impact accident analysis which was done by TRL, BASt and LAB in 2010 and underlined the remaining importance of frontal impact mitigation:

Pierre Castaing - European Commission Frontal Impact Accident Analysis Study

In the plenary discussion, it became obvious that all present experts in general agreed to the need for standardised testing methods and protocols for active safety assessment. The approach chosen by the eVALUE partners was also regarded as valid and applicable. This is also proven by the fact that similar and follow-up activities such as ASSESS, vFSS and others are also following this approach and partly build-up on eVALUE results.

The maturity of the eVALUE testing protocols as well as specific details of the test procedures were intensively discussed among the participants. While the maturity of the stability-related protocols was generally regarded as high, the need for the newly introduced highway exit scenario was questioned by some experts.

Assessment of active safety in the longitudinal direction is current within the scope of several projects and initiatives. The corresponding protocols developed by the eVALUE partners are rather mature, but cannot go in as much detail as dedicated projects are able to deliver it. The present experts however acknowledged the pioneering work that was done by eVALUE and was taken over in the meantime by consortia such as ASSESS and vFSS, which are also striving for a worldwide harmonisation. The protocols for evaluation and assessment of lateral safety are probably the least mature and major efforts need to be invested in the future to enhance them above the level that was developed by the eVALUE team.

The main results of the eVALUE project are covered in two reports, documenting the final testing protocols proposed by the eVALUE consortium as well as the experiences gained during various physical test sessions:

Deliverable D3.2 - Final Testing Protocols

Deliverable D4.2 - Test Report

The final project report will be published until the end of February 2011. Further information can be requested at any time directly from the coordinator.