Numerical Technologies for Vulnerable Road User Safety Enhancement - New Contributions in Information Systems and Technologies - page 334

Numerical Technologies for Vulnerable Road User Safety
Enhancement

Mariusz Ptak 1 and Krystian Konarzewski 2

1 Wroclaw University of Technology, Department of Machine Design and Research,
Lukasiewicza 7/9, 50-371 Wroclaw, Poland
[e-mail]
2 SEARCH S.C. - Safety Engineering Research
Krolewicza Jakuba 13A, 02-956 Warsaw, Poland
[e-mail]

Abstract. The progress in pedestrian and cyclist safety enhancement is the
result of multi-stage work, which bases mainly on the appropriate traffic
organization and road engineering. However, the full separation of vehicle
traffic and pedestrians/cyclists seems to be unmanageable nowadays. Thus, the
paper presents a dual approach for vulnerable road user safety enhancement by
the use of state-of-the-art numerical technologies. Firstly, the detection
technologies are presented which observe the vehicles environment in order to
detect, track and classify the surrounding objects, providing data for active
safety systems and as well as vehicle's driver. Their system architectures also
create communication interface between a human and automobile via the
accident-avoidance technology and pre-crash sensing. Secondly, when the
collision is unavoidable, the passive safety structures and systems are in
operation aimed at pedestrian/cyclist injuries mitigation. Hence, the authors
carried out passive safety virtual simulations to evaluate the response of the
human body after a vehicle impact.

Keywords: pedestrian and cyclist safety, detection technologies, passive and
active safety, Finite Element Method, numerical simulations, Autonomous
Emergency Braking.

1 Introduction

Pedestrian and cyclist formed the second largest group of road fatalities as more than
one-third of seriously injured or killed people account for vulnerable road users
(VRU) [1, 2]. The disproportion in pedestrian/cyclist injuries and fatalities in various
EU countries strongly correlates with roads and pavements infrastructure, speed limits
and the national health care system [3]. However, the crucial factor for pedestrian
passive safety is the car design and its frontal aggressiveness. The existing safety
research has focused on the front-end of passenger vehicle, since they contribute to
majority of the accidents involving pedestrians. Many significant advances have been
made in vehicle fronts [4, 5]. The stiff parts, such as car bonnet ornaments and