Sensors reducing pedestrian-car collisions

The EU-funded ARTRAC project has developed new sensor technologies which it believes could help meet the European Commission’s target of halving road accidents by 2020. The project, which includes carmakers Volkswagen and Fiat, developed an affordable radar sensor that uses multiple antennas to detect, classify and avoid obstacles on the road before collision and reduce the likelihood of vehicles colliding with pedestrians.
January 22, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

The EU-funded ARTRAC project has developed new sensor technologies which it believes could help meet the European Commission’s target of halving road accidents by 2020.

The project, which includes carmakers 994 Volkswagen and 1674 Fiat, developed an affordable radar sensor that uses multiple antennas to detect, classify and avoid obstacles on the road before collision and reduce the likelihood of vehicles colliding with pedestrians.

A high resolution image of the circumstances in front of the car, combined with a powerful digital processing board, enables the system to detect the presence of a person on the road, while an algorithm allows the system to track his or her movements.

Once the sensor detects a pedestrian, it can emit a warning or even be linked to an automatic braking and steering system. Radar was chosen because it is relatively cheap, robust and can work in all weather conditions and darkness.

The project is coordinated by Germany and includes Italy, Finland, Spain and Romania
“It is a big scandal that we accept that every year 5,000 people die on German roads,’ said project coordinator Professor Hermann Rohling of the Institute of Communications at Hamburg University of Technology in Germany. “That would not be accepted in air traffic.”

The system worked properly during more than 100 trials. “Even for me, that was really a surprise – that there was not a single instance of a radar sensor not working properly,” Rohling said.

Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision Classification & Data Collection Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • MEPs call for driver-assistance systems to made compulsory for new cars
    November 17, 2017
    Following over 25,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries on Europe’s roads each year, 90% of which are caused by human error, MEPs are calling for new cars to be equipped with lifesaving driver assistance systems in a draft resolution. Three-quarters of new cars are still not equipped with the systems due to the extra cost. In response, the resolution suggests only making features compulsory that are already available on the market such as automatic emergency braking systems with pedestrian and
    Read More
  • 20 cities challenge relaxation of EU air pollution standards
    May 6, 2016
    Ordered to cut air pollution levels by Brussels, a group of EU cities are taking the European Commission to court over its decision to relax car emissions standards, making their objectives even less attainable, according to EurActiv France. The EU’s muddled position on air pollution has angered the bloc’s major cities. For Paris, Madrid and Copenhagen, the EU’s decision to give carmakers more freedom to pollute is unacceptable. But since it was discreetly added to the Official Journal of the European Unio
    Read More
  • Lidar: beginning to see the light
    March 14, 2022
    Lidar feels like a technology whose time has come – but why now? Adam Hill talks to manufacturers, vendors and system integrators in the sector to assess the state of play and to find out what comes next
    Read More
  • The benefits of Lidar
    March 21, 2022

    While Lidar is gaining ground in the ITS industry, it has not yet reached the level of mass adoption where it shows up frequently in requests for proposals (RFPs) from cities and DoTs.

    Read More

Highlighted Content