by cidaut | Jul 13, 2015 | Sin categoría
Progressive autonomous vehicle functions and levels have a great opportunity to create significant benefits to society and economy. Vehicles equipped with this cutting-edge technology will likely reduce crashes, energy consumption and pollution, as well as reduce costs associated with congestion.
Additionally, the integration of intelligent technology in vehicles have a great potential for providing increased mobility for certain population that today have difficulties in getting a flexible and accessible mobility in urban and interurban modalities. Fully autonomous cars could also improve land use, and create new business models based in new car sharing and travel infotainment passenger customized services.
These benefits are a fantastic pillar for Automotive OEMs and Tier1, Technology companies and technological R&D providers, as well as Governments to launch a highly involved and enthusiastic resources investment in developing within a fast rate and high quality level new technology development activities, integration and wide in-depth validation of electronic functions for qualifying cars in the track of a full autonomous vehicle.
Full target achievement will be a question of time taking into account the technology development rate in this field during last decade. Meanwhile, many challenges have still to be solved and managed from different perspectives. This is the reason why CIDAUT has reinforced his compromise with the involvement in technological advance.
CIDAUT’s vision of participation and involvement in progressive automatic pilot electronic functionalities is based in our positive background of knowledge capitalization due to our participation and contribution to international and national R&D activities and internal product, services and knowledge generation.
Main topics within CIDAUT strong background perspective related to automatic electronic functions development and integration are:
- Design, development, and data processing & analysis of FOT and Naturalistic studies for the requirements in-depth evaluation and user acceptance from a cognitive and physic perspective.
- Tests and studies in driver simulator lab
- Architecture definition and instrumentation of HW/SW for experimental vehicles.
- HMI system development fitted to driver environment and user requirements
- Mobile Apps Development integrating with high engineering content integrating connectivity and geolocalization features.
- Computational Vision: Function development of partial automation vision based sensors. RT Online Video processing and feature information extraction. Integration in experimental vehicles.
- Driver monitoring and attention management system development vision sensor and sensor data fusion based.
- Virtual predefinition of ADAS – EM actuators and vehicular dynamics integration.
- Development of ITS technologies in roadway infrastructure for all road users safety enhancement. Support measures for progressive automatic vehicles.
These practices have been put for the benefit and have been feed backed by a balanced participation in R&D projects contributing to the global state of the art in the field. As an example we have proudly participated in the following initiatives:
These contributions were consolidated within EU 6th and 7th FP, and those were projects that started the track to progressive automation of vehicles. CIDAUT participation was focused in key aspects such as: human factor and driver cognitive ergonomics, HMI systems, application and functions development and technology evaluation by means of extensive FOTs and testing in driving simulator lab.
Additionally, the participation of CIDAUT within Spanish National R&D projects can be summarized in next figure:
Thanks to these initiatives where CIDAUT has been working with the greatest involvement and enthusiastic illusion, we are proud to say that we are on the track of the future automatic pilot vehicles.
And from this point forward, we will continue increasing our efforts for moving towards the vehicle fatalities zero vision and mobility efficiency.
by cidaut | Jul 13, 2015 | Sin categoría
LIFE+ New Jersey Project has entered its final stretch, with the installation in a road of a section of the concrete with end of life tires (ELTs) barrier developed by SIGNUS and tested in Cidaut facilities.
Shortly after the broadcast event held in the Committee of the Regions in Brussels, last March, Project Consortium proceeded to the start of the final milestone of the project, the installation, in the M-511 highway of the Community of Madrid Road Directorate, a stretch of concrete safety barrier with ELTs chips in concrete composition.
This barrier proves to be safe in the corresponding full scale crash test (according to the EN 1317 standard for road restrain systems), it has a lower density when compared to equivalent barriers made of conventional concrete. Furthermore, its lower density contributes to a lower transport costs and therefore a lower carbon footprint.
The use of ELTs chips in the concrete composition, as well as providing mechanical properties equivalent to those of conventional concrete, also the detached elements are reduced, since the elastic properties of the ELTs chips contribute to better hold of the cracked areas after an impact.
The project partners visited in mid-June the pilot stage to check in detail the good adaptation of the new barrier installation developed highway.
LIFE + New Jersey Project that started in September 2011, ends within June 2015, proving that residues such as those coming from the tire’s end of life can be used to improve the mechanical properties of concrete.
by cidaut | Jul 13, 2015 | Materials, Sin categoría
Since October 2012, CIDAUT has been working in ALIVE project together with other 20 partners including 7 major carmakers, 7 major suppliers, 2 SME’s and 4 academia research centres.
After more than 2 years of work, 21 partners have been developed materials and design concepts to obtain a high potential reduction of the weight of Electric Vehicles, while keeping track of the essential aim of affordable application to high volume productions.
In an extraordinary general meeting that took place on 25th of June at Darmstadt and was hosted by Fraunhofer LBF, the frozen design was presented as one of the big project milestones.
In ALIVE project, CIDAUT has carried out the necessary tasks to produce a new magnesium technology based on counter-gravity and laminar filling of sand moulds by using an electromagnetic pump that drives melted magnesium into the mould. Thanks to an automatic control of the filling profile, it is possible to obtain high performance components with low cycle times at low costs.
During the current year, CIDAUT and the other partners will have to manufacture the different components that complete an assembled demonstrator and modules that can be tested along 2016.
If you wish to learn more about ALIVE or the SEAM activities, visit:
www.project-alive.eu and www.seam-cluster.eu
by cidaut | Jul 13, 2015 | Sin categoría
VRUITS (Improving the Safety and Mobility of Vulnerable Road Users through ITS Applications) is a Research project co-funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Program (Grant Agreement Nº MOVE/FP7321586/VRUITS). It started in April 2013 and its final tasks are scheduled for March 2016. The Project VRUITS investigates how the safety, mobility and comfort of pedestrians, cyclists, Powered-Two-Wheelers and elderly drivers can be improved whit ITS applications. The research includes the improvement of the usability of different applications and the integration of VRUs in cooperative traffic systems.
Objectives of VRUITS project are:
- Assess societal impacts of ITS applications and provide recommendations for policies and industry on their usage, in order to improve the safety, mobility and comfort of VRUs;
- Recommend practices on how Vulnerable Road Users can be integrated in Intelligent Transport Systems and on how HMI designs can be adapted to meet the needs of VRUs, on the basis of evidences and through field trials.
The project consists of two vertical work packages: WP1 and WP7, and five horizontal work packages (WP 2-6) as shown in the figure.
First, an overview of existing and upcoming ITS systems for VRUs was provided. A total of 14 systems addressing pedestrians, 34 addressing cyclists, 28 for PTWs, and a number of 10 in-vehicle systems which benefit all kind of VRUs were initially picked. In order to identify the most promising solutions, a workshop was held with 40 relevant stakeholders including representatives of VRU groups, national and European authorities, infrastructure service providers and ITS-related organizations contributed to the prioritization process. Participants selected up to 22 applications having the highest potential for VRUs safety and rated these ITS solutions according to a set of criteria previously decided by VRUITS partners.
Activities in the next step addressed the adaptation of impact assessment methodology, in order to carry out qualitative and quantitative assessment of ITS for sub-groups of VRUs with regards to the aspects of safety, mobility and comfort, and to translate these into socioeconomic indicators. Moreover, user-acceptance and usability of existing ITS services for VRUs have been assessed, focusing on comfort, mobility and effectiveness of related information. A second workshop with stakeholders was held for this topic.
Thanks to the expertise of the participants, from the huge group of ITS initially assessed, 10 applications were withheld. The Consortium selected two of them to be demonstrated in Spain (Valladolid and Alcalá de Henares) and the Netherlands (Helmond): a cooperative Intersection Safety (INS) for cyclists in Helmond (Netherlands), an Intelligent Pedestrian Traffic Signal (IPTS) in Valladolid (Spain) and cooperative IPTS & a cooperative INS for drivers in Alcalá de Henares (Spain).
Equipment and applications at the test sites have been adapted and developed following the prioritization of ITS for VRUS and the recommended practices performed beforehand, in order to be suitable for testing by real users and under real environment.
- Valladolid site is based on the Intelligent Pedestrian Traffic Signal (IPTS) system: several Intelligent Pedestrian Detectors (IPDs) automatically detect pedestrians on the sidewalk next to the crossing, and based on their trajectories, IPDs decide whether pedestrians are waiting to cross the intersection. The IPDs send this information to an Interface Box, which gathers the data from all the IPDs and requests green light to the Traffic Light Controller (TLC) if there is a certain number of persons waiting. Then the TLC decides whether to give priority to pedestrians over vehicles and extend their green phase, based on the state of the traffic lights. This pilot also includes an Illumination on Demand Module (IDM), which is used to highlight the crossing and its surroundings, informing vehicles about the presence of pedestrians and thus enhancing the safety of the pedestrians. The objective of IPTS is to increase safety and comfort for pedestrians by automatically detecting them, extending their green phase and increasing illumination on the crossing. This application is mainly intended for areas with large amount of pedestrians.
- Alcalá de Henares site implements a smart traffic controller, which is based on the main characteristics of the Intelligent Pedestrian Traffic Signal (IPTS) and the Intersection Safety (INS) systems. The IPTS includes VRU2I (VRU-to-Infrastructure) and I2VRU (Infrastructure-to-VRU) communications where pedestrians can activate green light demand for crossing an intersection via their smart phone and in response to this, the traffic light controller (TLC) provides them the time remaining to activate pedestrian green light. While VRUs are crossing the IPTS detects them to extend the pedestrian green phase, ensuring their safe crossing. The INS includes I2V (Infrastructure-to-Vehicle) communications to inform drivers turning right, with low visibility, about pedestrians’ presence on the road. The detection of pedestrians on the crosswalk, made by the IPTS, is used to give this information to drivers. A drivers’ mobile application connected to a prototype device, able to communicate to the smart traffic controller, is developed for this function. The objectives of IPTS are increasing safety and comfort for pedestrians, (by allowing VRUs to activate a remote demand for green light and extending time on pedestrian green phase for safety crossing) and preventing collisions between right-turning vehicles with low/no visibility and crossing VRUs (by detecting the pedestrian crossing and warning the driver of the existing pedestrian crossing and iIncreasing the illumination at the pedestrian crossing).
At the end of September (date to be confirmed) a dissemination workshop targeted to local authorities and ITS industry will be held at CIDAUT premises. During this workshop, trial tests performed in both Spanish locations (Valladolid and Alcalá de Henares) will be presented, as well as an assessment on the results obtained.
by cidaut | Jul 13, 2015 | Sin categoría
Funded with €5.8m by the EC’s Horizon 2020 Programme, and leaded by Loughborough University, SafetyCube will develop an evidence-based road safety decision support system (DSS) to enable policy-makers and stakeholders to identify the most cost-effective measures to address the most pressing road safety problems.
The project brings together 18 partners from 15 European countries and spans all elements of road safety from infrastructures and speed limits, to vehicles, road users, and driver behaviour. The team of transdisciplinary experts will bring in-depth road traffic accident data resources together with detailed injury databases, trauma registers, insurance data and information on road user behaviour.
SafetyCube is the first systematic pan-European in-depth study of accident causation. As well as providing data on existing technologies, it will also enable predictive estimates to be made of the effectiveness of new technologies which may only be on the road in small numbers or not yet in use.
The project work plan is based around the core areas relating to the three components of the transportation system, i.e. road user behaviour, infrastructure design and operation, and vehicle safety, to facilitate the application of the results.
Participating organisations:
Loughborough University (UK), CIDAUT (Spain), SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre (CHALMERS) (Sweden), Laboratory of Accidentology, Biomechanics and Human Behaviour (LAB) (France), Centre Européen d’Etudes de Sécurité et d’Analyse des Risques (CEESAR) (France), National Technical University of Athens (Greece), Belgian Road Safety Institute, SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (Netherlands), Austrian Road Safety Board, French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks, Institute of Transport Economics (TØI) (Norway), European Road Federation (Belgium), Centre for Transport and Logistics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy), Agency for Public Health, Barcelona (ASPB) (Spain), Medical University of Hannover (Germany), Slovenian Traffic Safety Agency (AVP), DEKRA Automobil GmbH (Germany).
