Advancing active safety and testing methodologies towards the protection of Vulnerable Road Users: The project PROSPECT

The objective of PROSPECT is to improve significantly the effectiveness of active VRU safety systems compared to those currently on the market by: (i) expanding the scope of urban scenarios addressed (ii) improving the overall Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) and Autonomous Emergency Steering (AES) system performance (iii) proposing extensive validation methodologies for consumer testing, simulation and acceptance studies with tools for testing.

PROSPECT systems address the well-known barriers of current AEB systems such as limited sensors field-of-view, fuzzy path prediction, unreliable intent recognition and slow reaction times for the actuation. Since PROSPECT functions are developed to prevent accidents in intersections, a key aspect of the test methodology is the reproduction of naturalistic driven trajectories on the test track with driving robots. User acceptance tests with the participation of drivers are also crucial in PROSPECT for the success of all active safety systems.