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hand wheel vibrations. Systems such as TRW Lane Guidance take such concepts a step further by applying steering assistance to help the driver in lane keeping.
IVHS systems benefit from advances in sensing, electronic storage, processing capacity, architectures and communication, and from more extensive road infrastructures. Multiple sensor systems can now be practically implemented. Sensor fusion techniques are being used to provide enhanced information that could not be obtained from individual sensors in isolation in terms of accuracy, ranges or the different information that can be extracted. TRW Conekt, the research and development consultancy arm of TRW Automotive, is developing a number of fusion systems. These systems will lead to more intelligent vehicles and to more intelligent highways as vehicle technology is transferred to the infrastructure. Furthermore, technology developments such as car-to-car communication, car-to-infrastructure communication, and distributed and cooperative sensing will enable integration of previously largely independent systems.
Lane Change Support
Lane change support requires that the environment surrounding a vehicle is monitored. Since it is impractical for a single sensor to track all vehicles around a vehicle, it is necessary to use a suite of sensors that provides a suitable area of coverage. Figure 1 shows such a suite of sensors fitted by TRW Conekt to a 26-ton commercial vehicle in support of MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG's participation in the German Intelligenter Verkehr und Nutzergerechte Technik (INVENT) program that targeted traffic research for improving traffic flow and reducing accidents2.
The approximate coverage provided by the sensor suite is shown in Figure 2. Two TRW AC10 77 GHz radar sensors are forward- and rear-facing. Three third party 24GHz sensors are provided, two being forward-facing and a third is side-facing. The radars provide information about target vehicles relative to the host vehicle. A TRW Video Lane Detection system positions the host vehicle relative to the road and hence target vehicles are referenced with respect to the road. A multiple-sensor-fusion system is used to follow the path of vehicles moving in the environment surrounding the host. Tracks are then derived. (Tracks are defined as the estimate of the state of a target [including, for example, its position] and are obtained through processing of measurements from the target). A target tracking methodology is: |
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- Data Alignment (also referred to as spatial and/or temporal registration). Measurements are, for example, oriented with respect to the host vehicle's co-ordinate system.
- Data Association. A so-called gating function measures how closely the track matches a measurement. If this match is within a specified threshold, then the track and measurement are associated
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eSafety, a joint initiative of the European Commission, industry and other stakeholders, aims to accelerate the development, deployment and use of intelligent integrated safety systems that use information and communication technologies in intelligent solutions to increase road safety and reduce the number of accidents on Europe's roads.
The Integrated Project PReVENT is one of a number of activities that support the recommendations of the eSafety initiative. PReVENT is a European automotive industry activity co-funded by the European Commission to contribute to road safety by developing and demonstrating preventive safety applications and technologies.
Preventive safety applications help drivers to avoid or mitigate an accident through the use of in-vehicle systems which sense the nature and significance of the danger, while taking the driver's state into account. For more about PReVENT,
Visit http://www.prevent-ip.org/
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