Step by step automated driving is becoming present in our daily driving. Some years ago, some vehicles were able to maintain the selected speed or to inform us about our position in the lane, later they increased their intelligence braking when they found an obstacle in front or steering to stay in the center of the lane. Self-parking is nowadays a reality for some models, as it is the traffic-jam chauffeur. This upscaling of the vehicles’ skills is addressing us to growing levels of automation. Nowadays level 2 vehicles are a reality in the road and level 3 are starting to be sold, and together with the conditional and high automation level, the driver of the vehicle will be allowed to make different activities while the system controls the vehicle.
These activities will be linked to new positions in the vehicle, mainly it is foreseen that the seats will move backwards, the seatbacks will be more reclined and the steering wheel will be warded off in the cockpit. Attending to this new scenario, the conventional restrain systems will totally lose their performance. The seat belt, fixed to the B-pillar will be very far from the occupant shoulder, so it will be impossible to stop the chest in the event of a crash. Similarly, the steering wheel airbag will be away from the driver, so the pressure inside the bag will not be the suitable one when the body impacts the air-bag and the head will impact both the steering wheel and the cockpit.
To tackle these new scenarios, CIDAUT, together with three reference research and development centers, CTAG, ITENE and i2CAT, is developing new passive safety solutions in the frame of Integra project. The new solutions are related to the integration of the seat belt in the seat, in order to maintain the relative position between the occupant’s body and the restraint device, and also innovative solutions of smart airbags are involved with adaptive working parameters attending to the kind of impact and the position of the passengers inside the vehicle.
In parallel, and in order to inform the adaptive airbag solutions, CIDAUT is developing an innovative artificial vision devise based on a single camera to understand the occupants’ position and the main biomechanics characteristics. Additionally, the system integrates artificial intelligence algorithms that monitors the driver and are able to decide if it is in good condition to take over the control of the vehicle.
Acknowledgment
The work driving to these results is been performed in INTEGRA project, funded by and CDTI through Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in the frame of the funding for Excellence in Research Centers “Cervera”. CER – 2021 1031.
IFEVS is the Italian company designing smart electric urban vehicles with four main characteristics, affordability, all made in Europe, modularity and safety. The aim to obtain affordable solutions has addressed to the design of high strength steel tubular frames for different vehicle configurations. The technology is so flexible that can be applied to the frame of a bicycle and also to the frame of a van. For the last ten years, CIDAUT as specialist in crash worthiness, has established a strong collaboration with IFEVS to make these smart vehicles as safe as possible, being able to comply not only with the Regulation applicable to M1 vehicles but also with the more restrictive Euro NCAP protocols.
In TRA Lisbon, IFEVS presented the four wheels vehicle and also different configurations of the e-bike. In the case of the e-bikes the two and three wheels versions were available for testing. The vehicles received very good comments after testing mainly related to the high comfort, the easiness to ride and the progressivity of the electric boost.
Besides the positive feed-back of the tester, it is important to highlight that thanks to the modular design of the frame, its manufacturing cost is lower than the ones coming from Asian countries and also easy to manufacture in a low investment assembly line, with the competitive advantage that the design and the components are made in Europe, with innovative solutions for the energy storage system.
Acknowledgment
The research leading to these results received funding from the European Union (EU) project Avangard (GA #869986)
In the frame of Urbane, Horizon Europe Project, the research center and the municipality will collaborate to advance in the integration of zero emission vehicles and intelligent transport solutions for advanced last mile delivery solutions. The project has started on September 2022, and will last for 42 months. In this time, smart urban electric vehicles, vans and bikes, will be used to develop advanced last mile solutions based on connectivity solutions, protection of vulnerable road users and energy harvesting through photovoltaic panels integrated in the vehicles.
In relation to connectivity, the vehicles will be able to “talk” with all the elements around to reduce their carbon footprint, V2X. In the case of vehicle to vehicle communication, V2V, the vehicles of the fleet will inform each other about the load capacity available and the final destination, to optimize the number of vehicles moving to the different zones of the city, In the case of vehicle to infrastructure, V2I, the traffic lights will inform the vehicles about the time to green or to red, and the vehicles will be able to optimize their speed in order to minimize the electricity consumption. In the case of vehicle to customer, V2C, the vehicle will inform the customer about the parcel delivery, and if the customer accepts it will be possible to remotely open the trunk of his/her vehicle to deliver the parcel.
In relation to vulnerable road users protection, it is a fact that electric vehicles are less noisy and then more dangerous for vulnerable road users, mainly taking into account that last mile logistics may be concentrated in center areas of the cities. For this reason, the vehicles used in the project are equipped with artificial intelligence that allows the detection and recognition of vulnerable road users, advising the driver or automatically braking the vehicle in the case of risky situations.
Energy harvesting will be made thanks to the installation of advanced photovoltaics cells in the surface of the vehicles, laboratory tests, made previously to the project, have demonstrated that in the case of the van, and under ideal conditions, 25 km of totally free emissions can be run. One of the aims of the project is to demonstrate the performance in real traffic conditions.
The research leading to these results has received funding from Horizon Europe Programme under grant agreement nº 101069782.
On 28 june 2022 the innovation ecosystem of the aerospace sector of Castilla y Leon met place in León Technological Park (Leon, Spain) to analyze the opportunities of the strategic project for the recovery and economic transformation (PERTE) of the aerospace sector
Aerospace Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE), is a public-private collaboration instrument to boost science and innovation in the aerospace field with the aim of responding to the challenges of the sector, such as climate change, global security and digital transition. Thanks to this strategic project, public administrations, companies and R&D&I centers will have the opportunity to work in coordination to strengthen the capabilities of the aeronautical and space industry, promoting the development and implementation of innovative technologies, including technologies that support the development of the zero-emission aircraft. The Aerospace PERTE also aims to strengthen Spain’s position in the space sector with initiatives such as the creation of the Spanish Space Agency, which will establish new mechanisms to coordinate space activities at the national level and Spanish participation in international programs.
Within this framework, last Monday 28th of June took place in the Leon Technological Park (León, Spain) an important event which brought together a broad representation of Castilla y León´s innovation ecosystem of the aerospace sector. This event was organized by CIDAUT Foundation and CTME in cooperation with Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICE) under the training and support Program for R&D Business Centr@Tec.
The official opening of this event was carried out by Mr. Carlos Javier Fernández Carriedo (Councilor for Economy and Treasury of the Regional Government of Castilla y León), Mrs. Teresa Riesgo (President of the Center for Industrial Technological Development CDTI and Secretary General of Innovation of the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain), Mr. Joaquín Barreiro García (Director of the Faculty of Industrial, Computer Science and Aerospace Engineering at the University of León) and Mr. José Antonio Diez (Mayor of León).
Next, Mr. Roberto Trigo Martínez (Head of the Department of Large Scientific Facilities and Dual Programs at CDTI) and Mr. Vicente Giner Herrera (Responsible for Telecommunications Programs in the Space Department of CDTI) showed the Aerospace PERTE as a strategic project for the recovery and economic transformation of the national aerospace sector, deepening both in the aeronautical pillar (Aeronautical Technological Program – PTA) as in the space pillar.
The final event proceeded with a discussion panel composed by a representation of Castilla y León´s innovation ecosystem of the aerospace sector: Mr. Ignacio Fernández Baragaño (Communication and Institutional Relations Manager of Grupo Aciturri Aeronáutica), Mrs. Pilar Rodríguez (Head of Capgemini Market Strategy and Innovation Solutions), Mr. Jesús Gonzalo (Aerospace Engineering Area of the University of León), Mr. Carlos Bernabéu (CEO of Arborea Intellbird), Mr. Víctor Montero (Business & Operations Director of B2Space), Mr. Óscar González Espadín (Head of the Center for Special Environmental Tests of INTA), Mr. Raul de Saja (Manager of the Office for research and technology transfer of CTME) and Mr. Álvaro Villarino Rodríguez (R&D Project Manager at the innovation management departmentof CIDAUT Fundation). This discussion panel addressed issues related to Aerospace PERTE, environmental challenges facing the sector, training needs, R&D challenges, possibilities to generate synergies between the different stakeholders, etc.
Finally, the event was closed with the invitation to the attendees to participate in the next workshops and events organized under the training and support Program for R&D Business Centr@Tec.
It seems obvious that driving automation needs new capabilities from the vehicle, lots of sensors have to be integrated to understand what is happening around, short and long range communication systems have to be developed to understand what is happening a little bit further, but, what about the occupants and their safety?
In the frame of Integra project, Cidaut is taking care of the occupants and their safety by modifying the design of the vehicle interior in accordance to the new needs. The first step is to know what is happing inside, with a webcam the occupants are recorded and thanks to the artificial intelligence the information is immediately processed to get relevant information. The functionalities developed by now include, the recognition of the occupant, the counting of flickers and yawns along time, the inclination of the head, the direction of the glance and the position and distance of the body. By processing all this information it is possible to know the alertness level of the driver and the position of all the occupants.
The alertness level is relevant for both standard and automated driving. In the case of the standard driving, the system can detect drowsiness, distraction or illness and alert the driver and/or the rest of the users of the road of this circumstance. In the case of the automated driving, mainly at level 3, it will be possible to alternate the responsibility of the driving between the vehicle and the driver. When the vehicle needs to take over the driving responsibility to the human, it has to be sure that the driver is ready to assume the control of the vehicle, thanks to the application developed it is easy to make this transition in a safety way.
The position of the occupants is also critical for their safety. The high automated levels of driving, mainly 3, 4 and 5, will allow the occupants to take positions inside the vehicle different from standardized ones. In these positions the usual restrain systems are unable to protect the occupants in a proper way. Attending to this, it is necessary to develop new restrain systems suitable for the driving scenarios linked to the automated position and it is also necessary to monitor the occupants position in order to activate the new restrains systems in the most suitable manner attending to the kind of collision, the biometric characteristics of the occupant, and the position.
The work driving to these results is been performed in INTEGRA project, funded by and CDTI through Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in the frame of the funding for Excellence in Research Centers “Cervera”. CER – 2021 1031.
In the frame of SAHE, Hybrid and Electric Automotive Show, celebrated in Valladolid from the 22nd to the 24th of April, Cidaut has presented its last innovations related to sustainable mobility and intelligent transport.
At Cidaut’s booth, it was possible to see and touch two of the prototypes development in the last research and development projects carried out by the technological center. The first one was a crash test prototype that had been tested according to Regulation 94 homologation, in the frontal part of the vehicle the consequences of the crash were still visible. The rest of the vehicle has been repaired in order to shortly make an additional lateral pole crash test. Inside the vehicle, in the driving position, a crash test dummy was seated in order to make this testing tool familiar to the visitors. Most of the youngest assistants to the show were surprised and happy to see and touch the dummy while very few were surprised or scared.
The second prototype was a functional extra-light and safe urban electric vehicle. The interior of this prototype was monitored with a simple webcam and thanks to the application of artificial vision solutions, the vehicle was able to determine the position of the occupants, the direction of their glance, the number of flickers and yawns, and the alertness level of the driver. This solution will be applied to avoid unattended driving in automated driving scenarios, but also in standard driving conditions. The vehicle was open for the visitors to come in and test the performance of the monitoring systems. Again the youngest visitors were the ones who enjoyed the most the technological advances. Great to know the interest of youngest attendants in innovative solutions.
