Walter K. Kosiak

An Integrated Approach to Automotive Safety Systems

In this paper, the authors present the concept of using a safety state diagram for establishing an integrated system approach to automotive safety. The paper examines the following advanced concepts: pre-crash sensing, anticipatory crash sensing, X-by-wire systems, advanced safety interiors, integrated vehicle electrical/electronics systems data networks, and telematics.

V2X Communication Technology: Field Experience and Comparative Analysis

The exploration is built upon Delphi’s, Nissan’s, Cohda Wireless’ and Savari’s experiences in Asia, Europe and U.S.A. It describes and derives lessons from all four companies’ contributions in projects such as SMARTWAY in Japan, Drive C2X and in Europe, as well as the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot in the U.S.A. All the above programs were implemented by means of the Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) technology in the SHF spectrum based on the IEEE 802.11p/Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) standard. The study is supplemented with insights regarding complementary technologies such DSRC in the lower UHF frequency band (i.e. 700 MHz) as well as a V2X implementation through the 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) cellular telecommunication technology. This paper addresses issues regarding the physical layer (PHY) of the DSRC system. The combination of the delay profile caused by multipath propagation along with the motion-based Doppler spread leads to time and frequency dispersion. This limits the number of bytes acceptable for reliable communication or requires a solution at the receiver end. The analysis of the Doppler spread shows that DSRC implemented at 700 MHz is more immune from data packet length issues as opposed to 5 GHz DSRC. On the other hand, 700 MHz DSRC exhibits a much longer delay spread. Thus, guard time interval specified in ASTM E2213-03 cannot be applied as is to 700 MHz DSRC. This paper refers to the German project CoCarX and the Japanese SKY for pedestrian for studying the feasibility a V2X system built on the 4G/LTE technology and its infrastructure. It provides on a vision for an accelerated V2X deployment based on a heterogeneous system. Last, we recommend the ITS stakeholders to carry out extensive research and validation works on DSRC capacity for ensuring a large scale deployment.

Performance measurement of vehicle Crash Imminent Braking systems

As active safety system features are being introduced to the passenger vehicle market segment, there is an immediate need to develop a standardized testing protocol and scoring mechanism which enables an objective comparison of similar active safety system performance as implemented across various vehicle platforms. It is desirable that this standard is adopted by the entire automotive industry to further advance active safety technologies. This paper describes a proposal for the establishment of such a standard to evaluate and compare the performance of Crash Imminent Braking (CIB) systems. The operation of CIB system is described as a three-state state machine. A standardized scoring matrix is proposed to assess the performance of the system in each state. This standard ensures that every CIB system operates in one and only one state of the state machine at any given time. Subjective and arguable test scenarios are avoided as much as possible in this standard. The proposed scoring system is implemented based on track testing data in the evaluation of a 2011 model year passenger vehicle equipped with a CIB system.

Validation of pre-crash systems with vehicle hardware-in-the-loop experiments

Pre-Crash Systems (PCSs) use an environment sensor to improve the effectiveness of reversible passive safety restraints by activating them before a collision occurs. Obviously, a PCS should meet very high safety and reliability requirements. A PCS must therefore be thoroughly tested for a wide range of (near-)collision scenarios. This paper presents a new method for the validation of a PCS using Vehicle Hardware-In-the-Loop (VEHIL) experiments. The VEHIL laboratory enables collision-free testing of a PCS-equipped vehicle in a Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) environment, where only the relative motion between host and target vehicle is reproduced. With accurate and repeatable VEHIL experiments the validation of a PCS is carried out safer, cheaper and more efficient. The added value of VEHIL is demonstrated with a prototype PCS. This system uses a radar system to detect a pre-crash situation and a reversible belt retractor to bring the occupant in an optimal position for the crash.