A SEMINAR REPORT

ON
“EVOLUTION OF AUTOMOBILE SAFETY SYSTEM”

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Submitted by
ANKIT PAL 00514808221

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

MAHARAJA AGRASEN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

PSP AREA, PLOT NO. 1, SECTOR-22, ROHINI, DELHI-110086
2023-2024
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify Mr. ANKIT PAL with University Enrolment No 00514808221, VII semester
B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering has presented the seminar titled “EVOLUTION OF
AUTOMOBILE SAFETY SYSTEM” in the presence of the seminar evaluation panel for the
partial fulfilment of the award of B.Tech. Degree under GGSIPU, Delhi, for the academic
year 2022-23

Signature of the Mentor Signature of the HOD

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to all those who have contributed to the successful
completion of my seminar on Automobile safety system. This training has been an enriching and invaluable
experience for me.
First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my Head of the Department, Dr. Vaibhav Jain
for his constant support and guidance throughout this seminar period. His expertise in the field of mechanical
engineering has been instrumental in shaping my understanding and encouraging me to explore new
horizons.
I am immensely grateful to Mr. Deshdeep Gambhir, Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering
Department, for his excellent mentorship and unwavering support during this seminar. Their expertise in
Stealth Technology and their willingness to share their knowledge have been truly commendable. I am
indebted to them for their valuable insights and guidance, which have been pivotal in enhancing my skills
and understanding of the subject.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to all my classmates who have been an integral part of this seminar
journey. Their willingness to collaborate, share ideas, and offer assistance whenever needed has been truly
remarkable. Their support and camaraderie have made the learning process enjoyable and memorable.
Lastly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends for their constant encouragement,
understanding, and motivation throughout this seminar. Their unwavering support has been the driving force
behind my success.
In conclusion, I am immensely grateful to all the individuals mentioned above and many others who have
contributed directly or indirectly to my seminar on Automobile safety system. Their guidance, support, and
encouragement have been invaluable, and I am truly fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from such
remarkable individuals.
Thank you all.
Yours sincerely

ANKIT PAL
00514808221
 UNIT I
INTRODUCTION

Design of the body for safety

Energy equation
Engine location
Deceleration of vehicle inside passenger compartment
Deceleration on impact with stationary and movable obstacle
Concept of crumble zone
Safety sandwich construction

INTRODUCTION:
➢ Automobile safety is the study and practice of design cars, construction, equipment
and regulation to minimize the occurrence and consequences of traffic collisions.

CRASHWORTHINESS:

Crashworthiness is also highly dependent on how the materials, construction and design of the vehicle
work together. From a collision point of view, a vehicle can be considered as two primary kinds of structure.
First, there is the passenger cabin, within which the occupants should be belted to the seating. This compartment
should represent a ‘safety cage’. Ideally this cage will not distort or deform. Trapping feet with a collapsing
firewall or having the roof structure deform onto heads is extremely poor from an injury point of view. Very
strong passenger compartments are essential for these safety cages. The present material of choice for primary
structural pillars is boron-containing hot stamped steels, which have very high strength and are easily
manufacturable. The other important element is the crush zone that surrounds the cabin. This zone is tuned to
absorb energy and provide deformation. Crash performance is improved by controlling the acceleration of an
occupant’s chest and minimizing a head injury criterion, which is also related to peak rates of acceleration or
G-loading. Vehicle safety standards are based on these measures. To receive a 5-star crash rating, a passenger’s
chest should receive fewer than 48 Gs of acceleration when a vehicle impacts with a fixed rigid barrier.
Therefore, from a design point of view, the crush zone should crush from its original shape to nearly zero
thickness in front of the cabin compartment, ideally with a nearly constant force that is no greater than 48 times
the vehicle weight while the safety cage remains undeformed. For the deforming members, high strength or
stiffness is not desired, but what is important is the ability to absorb energy in a controlled manner and the
ability to crush the full distance from the bumper to cabin, while the force remain near the peak value it
maximizes the energy absorbed. Governmental regulation impose strict standards on occupant protection, and
on various crash modes including side impact and roof crush. The mass of vehicles could be dramatically
reduced if crashworthiness were not a consideration.
 TYPES OF IMPACTS IN CAR ACCIDENTS:

The impacts in car accidents are of three types.

1. VEHICLE IMPACT: The initial strike involves the exterior of the vehicle crashing into something, such as
another vehicle. Factors to consider here are the weight of the vehicles or objects, the speed of travel, and
how fast the vehicle stopped. These factors all dictate the force exerted, with speed being the one that has
the largest potential impact. The weight of a vehicle proportionally heightens the amount of force; however,
speed does so exponentially, thus it greatly affects the potential severity. Older vehicles were traditionally
designed to be resistant to forces in a collision, but in recent years the vehicles are instead manufactured to
better absorb the force and keep the passenger area better protected.
2. BODY IMPACT The second impact is the result of the occupant’s body striking something inside of the
vehicle. The body will typically be thrust toward the point of exterior impact and either be restrained by a
seat belt or stopped by striking an inside object—both of which are dangerous. It is also critical to remember
that any unsecured objects within the vehicle may also become potentially damaging projectiles. Examples
of such objects may include a glass beverage container, a briefcase, or a tool box.
3. ORGAN IMPACT: The third impact relates to the damage occurring inside of the body, such as to the internal
organs. A common example occurs when your brain abruptly strikes the skull that surrounds it. Organs that
are solidly composed like the spleen or liver may be fractured and suffer harmful bleeding. Key vessels like
the aorta could be damaged, which is largely responsible for blood flow, creating a potentially deadly
situation.

DESIGN OF VEHICLE BODY FOR SAFETY

➢ The safety of a vehicle and its passengers can be improved by properly designing and
selecting the material for vehicle bodies.
➢ The vehicle body structure is subjected to static and dynamic service loads during the
life cycle. It also has to maintain its integrity and provide adequate protection in
survivable crashes.
➢ At present there are two designs of vehicle body constructions: 1. Body over frame
structure and 2. Uni- body structure.
Necessary features of a safe vehicle body:
➢ Deformable yet stiff front structure with crumple zones to absorb the crash kinetic
energy from frontal collisions
➢ Deformable rear structure to safeguard rear passenger compartment and protect the
fuel tank
➢ Properly designed side structures and doors to minimize intrusion in side impact and
prevent doors from opening due to crash loads
➢ Strong roof structure for rollover protection
➢ Properly designed restraint systems with working in harmony with the vehicle
structure
➢ Accommodate various chassis designs for different power train locations and drive
train configurations.
Design techniques/strategies:
The following design techniques/strategies are to be followed while designing a car
body (especially front structure) to reduce the impact of crash and increase the safety of
the car and passengers.

Desired dummy performance:

➢ Dummy is a physical model representing humans inside a car.
➢ To model a car for safety, it should be modeled for proper crash energy management.
➢ As the human beings are to be safeguarded, the interaction of the human beings with
the restraint system during a crash has to be studied first. This branch of study is widely
known as bio-mechanics.
➢ The reaction of a human being for a crash pulse has to defined and studied in depth.
The following steps are involved in this procedure

Stiff cage structural concept:

➢ Stiff cage is the passenger compartment structure which provides protection for the
passengers in all modes of survivable collisions.
➢ The necessary features of a good stiff cage structure are: 1. sufficient peak load
capacity to support the energy absorbing members in front of it, 2. High crash energy
absorption. The stiff cage structure should withstand all the extreme loads and the
severe deformation.
Controlled progressive crush and deformation with limited intrusion:
➢ To make the impact of crash less, the crush event has to be controlled and the
deformation should be made such that the intrusion of other components into the
passenger compartment is less.
➢ Axial mode of crush is preferred to bending mode of crush as bending mode has lower
energy content.
➢ To achieve this objective three different crush zones are identified:
o Soft front zone: Reduces the aggressively of crash in pedestrian / vehicle and
vehicle / vehicle collisions
o Primary crush zone: It consists of the main energy absorbing structure before
the power train. It is characterized by a relatively uniform progressive structural
collapse.
o Secondary crush zone: Lies between the primary zone and passenger
compartment and sometimes extends into the passenger compartment up to
firewall. It provides a stable platform for the primary zone and transfers the load
to the occupant compartment as efficiently as possible.
Weight efficient energy absorbing structures:
 ➢ The architecture of the structural frame (structural topology) design depends on the
ability to design the primary crush zone for bending, folding, mixed folding and
bending.
➢ For a given vehicle package different topologies have to be studied for the same crush
energy absorption. The steps followed are:
▪ Create a simple model of vehicle front end system
▪ Determine the design loads of structural members

ENERGY EQUATION

➢ The application of the conservation of energy principle provides a powerful tool for
problem solving.
➢ Newton's laws are used for the solution of many standard problems, but often there are
methods using energy which are more straightforward.
➢ The basic reason for the advantage of the energy approach is that just the beginning
and ending energies need be considered; intermediate processes do not need to be
examined in detail since conservation of energy guarantees that the final energy of the system is
the same as the initial energy.
➢ The work-energy principle is also a useful approach to the use of conservation of
energy in mechanics problem solving. It is particularly useful in cases where an object
is brought to rest as in a car crash or the normal stopping of an automobile.
➢ Kinetic energy is energy of motion. Objects that are moving, have kinetic energy (KE).
If a car crashes into a wall at 5 mph, it shouldn't do much damage to the car. But if it
hits the wall at 40 mph, the car will most likely be totaled. Kinetic energy is similar
to potential energy. The more the object weighs, and the faster it is moving, the more
kinetic energy it has. The formula for KE is: KE = 1/2*m*v2 where m is the mass and
v is the velocity.
➢ The kinetic energy increases with the velocity squared. This means that if a car is going
twice as fast, it has four times the energy. It may be noticed that the car accelerates
much faster from 0 mph to 20 mph than it does from 40 mph to 60 mph. Let's compare
how much kinetic energy is required at each of these speeds. At first glance, you might
say that in each case, the car is increasing its speed by 20 mph, and so the energy
required for each increase must be the same. But this is not so. We can calculate the
kinetic energy required to go from 0 mph to 20 mph by calculating the KE at 20 mph
and then subtracting the KE at 0 mph from that number. In this case, it would be
1/2*m*202 - 1/2*m*02. Because the second part of the equation is 0, the KE =
1/2*m*202, or 200 m. For the car going from 40 mph to 60 mph, the KE = 1/2*m*602
- 1/2*m*402; so KE = 1,800 m - 800 m, or 1000 m. Comparing the two results, we
 can see that it takes a KE of 1,000 m to go from 40 mph to 60 mph, whereas it only
takes 200 m to go from 0 mph to 20 mph.
➢ There are a lot of other factors involved in determining a car's acceleration, such as
aerodynamic drag, which also increases with the velocity squared. Gear ratios
determine how much of the engine's power is available at a particular speed, and
traction is sometimes a limiting factor. So it's a lot more complicated than just doing a
kinetic energy calculation, but that calculation does help to explain the difference in
acceleration times.

ENGINE LOCATION
Front engine:
➢ The large mass of an engine at the front of the car gives the driver protection in the
event of a head on collision.
➢ Engine cooling is simpler to arrange and in addition the cornering ability of a vehicle
is normally better if the weight is concentrated at the front.

Figure 1.1. Location of engine in front engine vehicle.

➢ Advantages:
▪ Better axle load
distribution
▪ Better road grip
▪ Comfort riding
▪ Better cooling
▪ Less noise (long exhaust
pipe)
Rear engine:
➢ It increases the load on the rear driving wheels, giving them better grip of the road.
Most rear-engine layouts have been confined to comparatively small cars, because the
heavy engine at the rear has an adverse effect on the ‘handling’ of the car by making it
‘tail- heavy’.
➢ Also it takes up good deal of space that would be used on a front-engine car for
carrying luggage.
➢ Most of the space vacated by the engine at the front end can be used for luggage, but
this space is usually less than that available at the rear.

Central and mid-engine:

➢ These engine situations generally apply to sports cars because the engine sitting gives
a load distribution that achieves both good handling and maximum traction from the
driving wheels.
➢ These advantages, whilst of great importance for special cars, are outweighed in the
case of everyday cars by the fact that the engine takes up space that would normally
be occupied by passengers.
➢ The mid-engine layout shown combines the engine and transmission components in
one unit. The term mid-engine is used because the engine is mounted in front of rear
axle line.

DECELERATION OF VEHICLE AND PASSENGER COMPARTMENT ON IMPACT

 WITH STATIONARY AND MOVABLE OBSTACLE
It is important to study the deceleration inside passenger compartment to know the
effect of crash completely, so that the crash avoidance systems can be suitably designed. For
example, if the deceleration of the passenger after crash is very high, the air bag system and
the seat belt system has to be so designed that the activation time for them is reduced to a
lower value.
Otherwise it may lead to injuries and fatalities.
Usually tests are conducted to know the deceleration behavior after the crash with a
stationary obstacle. The tests are conducted at the following speeds:
1. 15 mph (miles per hour)
2. 20 mph 3. 40 mph
4. 50 mph
15 mph test:
The following pictures show the body deformation and acceleration graph after crash.
The body deformation is less as the vehicle speed is low. The crash occurs at time 0 seconds.
From the graph, we can know that after the crash, deceleration occurs which is shown in the
negative (lower) portion. Its value is up to 20g. After some time the acceleration slowly
comes to zero (the car stops)

Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with stationary object (at 15 mph speed testing condition).

20 mph test:
In the 20 mph test, the body deformation is more than 15 mph test. Moreover, the
acceleration has reduced to a further lower value (up to 35 g) in the negative direction. In this
case the maximum deceleration is obtained in 50 milli seconds whereas for 10 mph test it
was 35 milli seconds. The rebound velocity for this case is1.7 mph whereas for 10 mph it is
1.3 mph.40 mph test: In the 40 mph test, we can see that the acceleration curve goes down
(deceleration) then suddenly goes up in the positive region (acceleration). This is due to the
fact that, at 40 mph, the deformation is more and the accelerometer (sensor) mounting area
has buckled and resulted in an increase in acceleration value. The body deformation is also
high such that the accelerometer mounting area is also damaged. So, we have to carefully
analyze the graph to study the situation.

Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with stationary object (at 20 mph speed testing condition).

40 mph test:
In the 40 mph test, we can see that the acceleration curve goes down (deceleration) then
suddenly goes up in the positive region (acceleration). This is due to the fact that, at 40 mph,
the deformation is more and the accelerometer (sensor) mounting area has buckled and
resulted in an increase in acceleration value. The body deformation is also high such that the
accelerometer mounting area is also damaged. So, we have to carefully analyze the graph to
study the situation.

Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with stationary object (at 40 mph speed testing condition).
50 mph test:
The body deformation is very high as the speed is more. The acceleration curve shows that
the maximum deceleration is around 35g and happens in time duration of 45 milli seconds.
The rebound velocity is 1.6 mph.

Figure 1.7. Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with stationary object (at 50 mph speed testing condition).

DECELERATION ON IMPACT WITH A MOVABLE OBSTACLE:

A movable obstacle can be another car or any other vehicle. Let us consider a car is impacting
with another car. We shall study for the two cars; one car which is impacting the second car,
the other car is which is being impacted. In this case the test is conducted at 40 mph.
Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with movable object (at 40 mph speed testing condition).

The impact velocity was 40.6 mph with a separation velocity of 18.0 mph for a total velocity
change of 22.6 mph. A maximum of 15g’s deceleration was achieved at about 50
milliseconds. The total impact duration was approximately 195 milliseconds Impacted
vehicle:

Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with movable object (at 18 mph speed testing condition).

The pre-impact velocity was 0.0 mph with a separation velocity of 22.8 for a total velocity
change of 22.8mph. A maximum of 16.5g’s acceleration was achieved at about 15
milliseconds. The total impact duration was approximately 195 milliseconds.

CONCEPT OF CRUMBLE ZONE

➢ Crumple zones are designed to absorb the energy from the impact during a traffic
collision by controlled deformation.
➢ The crumple zone of an automobile is a structural feature designed to compress during
an accident to absorb energy from the impact. Typically, crumple zones are located in
the front part of the vehicle, in order to absorb the impact of a head-on collision, though
 they may be found on other parts of the vehicle as well. Some racing cars use aluminum
or composite honeycomb to form an 'impact attenuator' for this purpose.
➢ It was an inventor Bela Barenyi who pioneered the idea that passengers were safer in
a vehicle that was designed to easily absorb the energy from an impact and keep that
energy away from the people inside the cabin. Barenyi devised a system of placing the
car's components in a certain configuration that kept the kinetic energy in the event of
a crash away from a bubble protecting the car's occupants.
➢ Mercedes obtained patent from Barenyi's invention way back in 1952 and the
technology was first introduced into production cars in 1959 in the Mercedes-Benz
220, 220 S and 220 SE models.

Auto safety has come a long way in the last few decades, and one of the most effective
innovations is the crumple zone. Also known as a crush zone, crumple zones are areas of a
vehicle that are designed to deform and crumple in a collision. This absorbs some of the energy
of the impact, preventing it from being transmitted to the occupants.

Of course, keeping people safe in auto accidents isn't as simple as making the whole vehicle
crumple. Engineers have to consider many factors in designing safer cars, including vehicle
size and weight, frame stiffness and the stresses the car is likely to be subjected to in a crash.
For example, race cars experience far more severe impacts than street cars, and SUVs often
crash with more force than small cars.
Function:
➢ Crumple zones work by managing crash energy, absorbing it within the outer sections
of the vehicle, rather than being directly transmitted to the occupants, while also
preventing intrusion into or deformation of the passenger cabin.
➢ This better protects car occupants against injury. This is achieved by controlled
weakening of sacrificial outer parts of the car, while strengthening and increasing the
rigidity of the inner part of the body of the car, making the passenger cabin into a
'safety cell', by using more reinforcing beam sand higher strength steels. Volvo introduced the side
crumple zone; with the introduction of the SIPS (Side Impact Protection System) in the early 1990s.
➢ The purpose of crumple zones is to slow down the collision and to absorb energy. It is
like the difference between slamming someone into a wall headfirst (fracturing their
skull) and shoulder-first (bruising their flesh slightly) is that the arm, being softer, has
tens of times longer to slow its speed, yielding a little at a time, than the hard skull,
which isn't in contact with the wall until it has to deal with extremely high pressures.
➢ Seatbelts restrain the passenger so they don't fly through the windshield, and are in the
correct position for the airbag and also spread the loading of impact on the body. Seat
belts also absorb energy by being designed to stretch during an impact, so that there is
less speed differential between the passenger's body and their vehicle interior. In short:
 A passenger whose body is decelerated more slowly due to the crumple zone (and other
devices) over a longer time, survives much more often than a passenger whose body
indirectly impacts a hard, undamaged metal car body which has come to a halt nearly
instantaneously.
➢ The final impact after a passenger's body hits the car interior, airbag or seat belts, is
that of the internal organs hitting the ribcage or skull. The force of this impact is the
mechanism through which car crashes cause disabling or life threatening injury. The
sequence of energy is dissipating and speed reducing technologies - crumple zone -
seat belt - airbags - padded interior, are designed to work together as system, to reduce
the force of this final impact.
➢ A common misconception about crumple zones is that they reduce safety by allowing
the vehicle's body to collapse, crushing the occupants. In fact, crumple zones are
typically located in front and behind of the main body (though side impact absorption
systems are starting to be introduced), of the car (which forms a rigid 'safety cell'),
compacting within the space of the engine compartment or boot/trunk.
➢ The marked improvement over the past two decades in high speed crash test results
and real-life accidents also belies any such fears.
➢ Modern vehicles using what are commonly termed 'crumple zones' provide far superior
protection for their occupants in severe tests than older models, or SUVs that use a
separate chassis frame and have no crumple zones.

SAFETY SANDWICH CONSTRUCTION:

➢ Sandwich panel constructions using metallic and polymeric honeycombs and foams
have been used for many years in the competition and high performance sectors of the
automotive industry, and there is considerable knowledge and confidence in their
static, dynamic and crashworthiness properties.
➢ Sandwich panels have only been used to produce extremely limited numbers of
product and have been essentially hand-worked.
➢ The potential advantages of polymer composites for automotive parts (high specific
strength and stiffness, corrosion resistance) are well known. Further benefits are
available from the use of sandwich construction, in which a relatively stiff, strong skin
is bonded either side of a much thicker, lightweight core.
➢ Sandwich panels have been widely used for structural applications in the marine,
aerospace and performance automotive industries for several decades.
➢ Lightweight core materials have included balsa, polymer foams and metallic, paper or
polymer honeycombs. These have been used in various combinations with skins of
carbon, glass and/or aramid fiber-reinforced polymer, as well as aluminium.The
 principle of sandwich construction is that bending loads are carried by the skins, while
the core transmits shear load.
➢ They enable large gains in structural efficiency, since the thickness (and hence flexural
rigidity) of panels can be increased without significant weight penalty.
➢ In high performance car construction, most sandwich panel elements are vacuum
bag/autoclave molded on a contact tool, usually in several stages (e.g. first skin; core
to skin bond; second skin).
➢ Although this permits complex shapes to be produced on low cost tooling, it is
necessarily a time consuming and labor intensive process.
➢ A high degree of cleanliness and sophisticated process control are required, and
inspection is notoriously difficult.
➢ Sandwich panels are also available as flat sheet, stock material.
➢ Hexcel Composites, for example, supply arrange of honeycomb cored sheets of
varying specifications which is widely used for building cladding, aircraft flooring,
luggage bins and bulkheads.
➢ The use of a stock material is attractive, since primary material quality and
specification becomes the responsibility of the supplier, not the manufacturer.
➢ Several techniques are well established for the shaping and assembly of structural
components from flat sandwich panel. Panels may be bent to required angles by
removing a defined strip of material from the inner skin, then folding and adhesively
bonding the joint.

Figure 1.10. Safety structures – Sandwich composite materials.

➢ For additional strength, reinforcing material can be added at the skin joints. It is
emphasized at this point that the process of shaping a panel requires no tooling, and
assembly can often be arranged so that parts are self-jigging.
 ➢ The panels can be machined with hand tools a major attraction of these techniques is
the potential they offer for computer control and automation.

Importance of ergonomics in automotive safety:

Ergonomics is the interaction between a person and the things they use. For example, the
products usability and the comfort level. The things to keep in mind are that many
demographics are now using vehicles such as women driving SUVs, elderly people,
differently abled or special needs people who need to drive vehicles. There are mainly five
aspects of ergonomics - safety, comfort, ease of use, productivity and aesthetics. While
spending for aesthetics is a stretch, spending for safety is something that customers don't have
any qualms about. It is the one aspect that no one wants to compromise on. Usually there are
standard features for safety such as airbags in every car. However, extra care needs to be taken
if optimum safety is to be ensured.
 UNIT II SAFETY CONCEPTS

ACTIVE SAFETY:
• Active safety systems help prevent accidents and thus make a preventive contribution to safety in
road traffic.
• Active safety systems are designed to help you avoid a crash in the first place.
• One example of an active driving safety system is the Antilock Braking System (ABS) with
Electronic Stability Program (ESP) from Bosch, which stabilizes the vehicle even in critical braking
situations and maintains steerability in the process.
Driving safety
• It is the result of a harmonious chassis and suspension design with regard to wheel suspension,
springing, steering and braking, and is reflected in optimum dynamic vehicle behavior.
Conditional safety
• It results from keeping the physiological stress that the vehicle occupants are subjected
to by vibration, noise, and climatic conditions down to as low a level as possible. It is
a significant factor in reducing the possibility of miss actions in traffic.
• Vibrations within a frequency range of 1 to 25 Hz (stuttering, shaking, etc.) induced
by wheels and drive components reach the occupants of the vehicle via the body, seats
and steering wheel. The effect of these vibrations is more or less pronounced,
depending upon their direction, amplitude and duration.
• Noises as acoustical disturbances in and around the vehicle can come from internal
sources (engine, transmission, prop shafts, axles) or external sources (tire/road noises,
wind noises), and are transmitted through the air or the vehicle body.
• The sound pressure level is measured in dB(A) (see Motor-vehicle noise measurements
and limits).Noise reduction measures are concerned on the one hand with the
development of quiet- running components and the insulation of noise sources (e.g.,
engine encapsulation), and on the other hand with noise damping by means of
insulating or anti-noise materials.
• Climatic conditions inside the vehicle are primarily influenced by air temperature, air
humidity, rate of airflow through the passenger compartment and air pressure (see
Environmental stresses for additional information).
Perceptibility safety
• Measures which increase perceptibility safety are concentrated
• Lighting equipment (see Lighting),
• Acoustic warning devices (see Acoustic signaling devices),
• Direct and indirect view (see Main dimensions) (Driver's view: The angle of
obscuration caused by the A-pillars for both of the driver's eyes binocular must not be
more than 6 degrees).
Active Safety Systems.
Active Safety Features:
Active safety features are designed to keep in full control of the vehicle at all times using
advanced technologies. These technologies attempt to avoid accidents in the first place, and
they are always on, alerting commuters. Thus, these safety features are always “active.” Here
are some of the features they include:
Active Brakes – These brakes help make driving easier in a number of different ways by
applying added braking pressure when emergency braking, automatically drying themselves
when it’s wet, and decreasing erratic driving.
Dynamic Stability Control – Using advanced sensors and the strategic delivery of torque and
brake pressure to the wheels, this system is able to help you stay stable on the road.
Head-Up Display – Keep your eyes on the road to avoid a collision while still getting access to
important information like your speed, navigation directions, and radio.
Cornering Brake Control – When you’re taking a corner at speed, this system applies the brakes
automatically to help you stay in control.
Adaptive Cruise Control – This feature is able to automatically maintain a safe distance between
your car and the one in front of you.

PASSIVE SAFETY:

• A passive safety system helps to protect from injury if a crash is unavoidable.It refersto components
of the vehicle (primarily airbags, seatbelts and the physical structure of the vehicle) that help to
protect occupants during a crash
• Passive safety systems serve to protect the occupants against serious or even fatalinjuries.
• An example of passive safety is the airbags, which protect the occupantsfollowing an unavoidable
impact.
Exterior safety
The term "exterior safety" covers all vehicle-related measures which are designed to minimize the
severity of injury to pedestrians and bicycle and motorcycle riders struck by the vehicle in an accident. Those
factors which determine exterior safety are: Vehicle-body deformation behavior, Exterior vehicle body
shape.

The primary objective is to design the vehicle such that its exterior design minimizes the consequences
of a primary collision (a collision involving persons outside the vehicle and the vehicle itself).The most
severe injuries are sustained by passengers who are hit by the front of the vehicle, whereby the course of the
accident greatly depends upon body size. The consequences of collisions involving two-wheeled vehicles
and passenger cars can only be slightly ameliorated by passenger-car design due to the two-wheeled vehicle's
often considerable inherent energy component, its high seat position and the wide dispersion of contact
points. Those design features which can be incorporated into the passenger car are, for example:
• Movable front lamps
• Recessed windshields wipers, Recessed drip rails,
• Recessed door handles.
 Interior safety
The term "interior safety" covers vehicle measures whose purpose is to minimize the accelerations and
forces acting on the vehicle occupants in the event of an accident, to provide sufficient survival space, and
to ensure the operability of those vehicle components critical to the removal of passengers from the vehicle
after the accident has occurred. The determining factors for passenger safety are:
• Deformation behavior (vehicle body),
• Passenger-compartment strength, size of the survival space during and after impact, Restraint
systems,
• Impact areas (vehicle interior),
• Steering system,
• Occupant extrication,
• Fire protection.

Laws which regulate interior safety (frontal impact) are:

• Protection of vehicle occupants in the event of an accident, in particular restraint systems
• Windshield mounting
• Penetration of the windshield by vehicle body components
• Parcel-shelf and compartment lids

Rating-Tests:
• New-Car Assessment Program (NCAP, USA, Europe, Japan, Australia), IIHS (USA,
insurance test),
• ADAC, ams, AUTO-BILD.

Passive Safety Features:

Passive safety features are designed to mitigate the impact of a collision when it does occur. So, they remain
passive unless called upon.
Passive features on MINI cars include:
Smart Airbags – New MINI vehicles come with up to eight smart airbags.
Crash Sensor System – This feature automatically unlocks the doors, turns on the hazard lights, and cuts the fuel
pump when the airbags go off.
Breakaway Engine – This feature helps the engine and gearbox absorb as much of the impact as possible in case
of a forward collision.
Rollover Protection Bar – This mounted safety bar can deploy in just seconds to provide added protection if the
vehicle rolls over.
Engine Immobilizer – This system automatically immobilizes the engine without the key.
Passive Safety Systems.
Head up display:
The automotive HUD finds application in the majority of the passenger car segments. Given
the increasing adoption of HUD in the automotive sector, it has become a standard feature for
various models in the luxury car segment. Additionally, the increasing demand for comfort and
safety has compelled automakers to incorporate this feature in premium and mid segment
models as well. The market in growing regions such as Asia-Pacific, and North America
indicate promising growth potential for the automotive HUD market. The Asia-Pacific
automotive market in particular presents high-growth opportunities; the region includes Japan,
China, and India, with the latter two having huge production capabilities. The European HUD
market is primarily driven by the growing awareness regarding driver safety and convenience.
Europe has many luxury/premium car manufacturers. Major high-end car OEMs such as Audi
AG (Germany), BMW (Germany), Mercedes-Benz (Germany), Bentley Motors (UK), Maserati
(Italy), Ferrari (Italy), and Bugatti Automobiles (France) have their headquarters in Europe. The
automotive HUD comes as standard safety feature in the majority of European automobiles.
The region therefore has a wide customer base for this technology.
Windshield head up display technology and combiner head UP display technology:
The windshield head up display projects a virtual image with the necessary information needed
by the driver. This information is projected in accordance with the drivers eye gaze. In this
technology type, the windshield of the car plays an important role as there are chances that the
image produced by the device can be distorted. The conventional HUD uses TFT displays which
projects images on the windscreen. With the advancement in technology there have been
improvements in the display technology. One of the differentiating factors between the two
types of HUDs is the space requirement and image resolution. The Combiner HUD type has a
smaller screen which displays the necessary information but lacks the picture quality as
compared to the other type. The Combiner HUD has an adjustable positioning system which
enables the driver to adjust the screen according to their convenience.

Augmented Reality head up display technology:

Augmented reality (AR) is an upcoming trend in the head-up display market. Augmented HUD
is a real time technology which enhances the safety and driving experience. Augmented reality-
based HUD technology provides full-colour advanced driver assistance system (ADAS)
including lane departure warning system and advanced driving information. The AR-HUD
sense the exterior environment of the vehicle, analyses this information and virtually display
the traffic condition. For example, if the driver has set a destination on the navigation system,
the AR-HUD projects a virtual route that is to be followed. It also detects the distance between
itself
 UNIT III SAFETY EQUIPMENTS

Seat belt, regulations, automatic seat belt lightener system

Collapsible steering column, tilt able steering wheel
Air bags, electronic system for activating air bags Bumper
design for safety

SEAT BELT
• A seat belt, sometimes called a safety belt, is a safety harness designed to secure the
occupant of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result from a collision or a
sudden stop.
• As part of an overall automobile passive safety system, seat belts are intended to reduce
injuries by stopping the wearer from hitting hard interior elements of the vehicle, or
other passengers (the so-called second impact), are in the correct position for the airbag
to deploy and prevent the passenger from being thrown from the vehicle.
• Seat belts also absorb energy by being designed to stretch during an impact, so that
there is less speed differential between the passenger's body and their vehicle interior,
and also to spread the loading of impact on the passengers’ body.
• The final, so-called 'third impact' after a passenger's body hits the car interior, airbag
or seat belts, is that of the internal organs hitting the ribcage or skull.
• The force of this impact is the mechanism through which car crashes cause disabling
or life threatening injury.

Three points seat belt.

 • The sequence of energy dissipating and speed reducing technologies - crumple zone -
seat belt - airbags - padded interior, are designed to work together as system, to reduce
the force of this final impact
Types of seat belts
• Lap seat belt
• Three points
seatbelt Lap:
• Adjustable strap that goes over the waist. Used frequently in older cars, now
uncommon except in some rear middle seats. Passenger’s aircraft seats also use lap
seat belts to prevent injuries. Sash:
• Adjustable strap that goes over the shoulder. Used mainly in the 1960s, but of limited
benefit because it is very easy to slip out of in a collision. Three-point:
• Similar to the lap and shoulder, but one single continuous length of webbing. Both
threepoint and lap-and-sash belts help spread out the energy of the moving body in a
collision over the chest, pelvis, and shoulders. Volvo introduced the first production
three-point belt in 1959. The first car with three point belt was a Volvo PV 544 that
was delivered to a dealer in Kristian stad on August 13, 1959. The three point belt was
developed by Nils Bohlin who earlier had worked on ejection seats at Saab. Until the
1980s, three-point belts were commonly available only in the front seats of cars; the
back seats had only lap belts or diagonal belts. Evidence of the potential for lap belts
to cause separation of the lumbar vertebrae and the sometimes associated paralysis, or
"seat belt syndrome", has led to a revision of passenger safety regulations in nearly all
developed countries requiring that all seats in a vehicle be equipped with three-point
belts. Since September 1, 2007, all new cars sold in the U.S. require a lap and shoulder
belt in the center rear.

Seat belts and seat-belt tighteners

 Figure 3.2. Parts of Seat belt.

Figure 3.3. Occupant protection systems with belt tighteners and front airbags

FUNCTION:
The function of seat belts is to restrain the occupants of a vehicle in their seats when
the vehicle hits an obstacle.
Seat-belt tighteners improve the restraining characteristics of a three-point inertia-reel
belt and increase the protection against injury.
In the event of a frontal impact, they pull the seat belts tighter against the body and
thus hold the upper body as closely as possible against the seat backrest.
This prevents excessive forward displacement of the occupants caused by mass
inertia.
Operating concept:
• In a frontal impact with a solid obstacle at a speed of 50 km/h, the seat belts must
absorb a level of energy comparable to the kinetic energy of a person in free fall from
the 4th floor of a building. Because of the belt slack, the belt stretch and the delayed
effect of the belt retractor ("film-reel effect"),three-point inertia-reel belts provide only
limited protection in frontal impacts with solid obstacles at speeds of over 40 km/h
because they can no longer safely prevent the head and body from impacting against
the steering wheel or the instrument panel. An occupant experiences extensive forward
displacement without restraint systems.
• Deceleration to standstill and forward displacement of an occupant at an impact speed
of 50 km/h.1 Impact, 2 Firing of belt tightener/airbag, 3 Belt tightened, 4 Airbag
inflated. without/ with restraint systems. In an impact, the shoulder belt tightener
compensates for the belt slack and the "film-reel effect" by retracting and tightening
the belt strap.
• At an impact speed of 50 km/h, this system achieves its full effect within the first 20
ms of the impact; and thus supports the airbag which needs approx. 40 ms to inflate
completely. The occupant continues to move forward slightly until making contact
with the deflating airbag and in this manner is protected from injury.
A prerequisite for optimum protection is that the occupants' forward movement away
from their seats remains minimal as they decelerate along with the vehicle. This is
achieved by triggering the belt tighteners immediately upon initial impact to ensure
that safe restraint of the occupants in the front seats starts as soon as possible.

The maximum forward displacement with tightened seat belts is approx. 1 cm and the
duration of mechanical tightening is 5...10 ms. On activation, a pyrotechnical
propellant charge is electrically fired. The explosive pressure acts on a piston, which
turns the belt reel via a steel cable in such a way that the belt rests tightly against the
body.
 Shoulder-belt tightener

1.Ignition cable, 2 Firing elements, 3 Propellant charge, 4 Piston, 5 Cylinder, 6 Metal cables, 7 Belt reel, 8 Belt
strap.
COLLAPSIBLE STEERING COLUMN
The collapsible steering column, like shoulder harnesses or air bags, is a device that
greatly increases driver survivability in the event of a head on collision. During a head
on crash, the steering column can be pushed into the passenger compartment with
tremendous force.
At the same time, drivers obey Newton’s first law of motion and continue to travel at
the same speed of the automobile until something acts on the driver to slow or stop
them. Too frequently, it was the steering wheel that caused drivers to stop, sometimes
with horrific consequences.
In fact, years ago it was not unheard of for drivers to be impaled on the steering shaft.
As a result, engineers began to investigate ways in which driver survivability could be
increased for those unlucky enough to slam into the steering wheel. The goal was to
develop a system in which the driver could safely slow down or decelerate during a
front end collision. What they developed is now known as the collapsible steering
column. Its design was so successful that nearly all of today’s steering columns are
designed to deform under pressure from impact.
Collapsible steering columns come in a number of designs. Some columns integrate
a series of telescoping tubes that collapse when impacted by the driver. Others use
break points in the column that will allow the bend more easily. Still others have a
special joint near the steering gear that allows the column to snap down during impact.
While air bags have become more prominent over the past few years, collapsible
steering columns continue to play an important role in enhancing driver safety. But
rather than being a primary safety feature, steering column designs have come to
represent the last ring of safety behind shoulder harnesses restraints and air bags.
Together, more drivers are walking away from crashes that would have certainly
resulted in death, just a few years ago.
 Figure 3.5. Parts of conventional steering column assembly

Figure 3.6. Parts of standard crushable steering column assembly

AIR BAGS, ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR ACTIVATING AIR BAGS:

Front airbag
Function:
The function of front airbags is to protect the driver and the front passenger against
head and chest injuries in a vehicle impact with a solid obstacle at speeds of up to 60
km/h.
In a frontal impact between two vehicles, the front airbags afford protection at relative
speeds of up to 100 km/h. A belt tightener alone cannot prevent the head from hitting
the steering wheel in response to severe impact. In order to fulfill this function,
depending on the installation location, vehicle type and structure-deformation
response, airbag shave different filling capacities and pressure build-up sequences
adapted to the specific vehicle conditions.
In a few vehicle types, front airbags also operate in conjunction with "inflatable knee
pads", which safeguard the "ride down benefit", i.e. the speed decrease of the
occupants together with the speed decrease of the passenger cell.
 This ensures the rotational forward motion of the upper body and head which is
actually needed for optimal airbag protection, and is of particular benefit in countries
where seat- belt usage is not mandatory.

Figure 3.7. Construction and working of airbag.

Operating concept:
To protect driver and front passenger, pyrotechnical gas inflators inflate the driver and
passenger airbags in pyrotechnical, highly dynamic fashion after a vehicle impact
detected by sensors.
In order for the affected occupant to enjoy maximum protection, the airbag must be
fully inflated before the occupant comes into contact with it.
The airbag then responds to upper-body contact with partial deflation in a response
pattern calculated to combine "gentle" impact-energy absorption with non-critical (in
terms of injury) surface pressures and decelerative forces for the occupant. This
concept significantly reduces or even prevents head and chest injuries.
The maximum permissible forward displacement before the driver's airbag is fully
inflated is approx.12.5 cm, corresponding to a period of approx. 10 ms + 30 ms = 40
ms after the initial impact (at 50 km/h with a solid obstacle) (see Fig. "Deceleration to
standstill"). It needs 10 ms for electronic firing to take place and 30ms for the airbag
to inflate.
In a 50 km/h crash, the airbag takes approx. 40 ms to inflate fully and a further 80...100
ms to deflate through the deflation holes. The entire process thus takes little more than
a tenth of a second, i.e. the batting of an eyelid.

Impact detection:
• Optimal occupant protection against the effects of frontal, offset, oblique or pole
impact is obtained through the precisely coordinated interplay of electrically fired
pyrotechnical front airbags and seat-belt tighteners.
• To maximize the effect of both protective devices, they are activated with optimized
time response by a common ECU (triggering unit) installed in the passenger cell. The
ECU's deceleration calculations are based on data from one or two electronic
acceleration sensors used to monitor the decelerative forces that accompany an impact.
The impact must also be analyzed. A hammer blow in the workshop, gentle pushing,
driving over a curbstone or a pothole should not trigger the airbag. With this end in
mind, the sensor signals are processed in digital analysis algorithms whose sensitivity
parameters have been optimized with the aid of crash-data simulations.
 • Depending on the impact type, the first trigger threshold is reached within 5...60 ms.
the acceleration characteristics, which are influenced for instance by the vehicle
equipment and the body's deformation performance, are different for each vehicle.
They determine the setting parameters which are of crucial importance for the
sensitivity in the analysis algorithm (computing process) and, in the end, for airbag
and belt-tightener firing.
• Depending on the vehicle-manufacturer's production concept, the trigger parameters
and the extent of vehicle equipment can also be programmed into the ECU at the end
of the assembly line ("end-of-line programming" or "EoL programming").In order to
prevent injuries caused by airbags or fatalities to "out-of-position" occupants or to
small children in Re board child seats, it is essential that the front airbags are triggered
and inflated in accordance with the particular situations.

• The following improvement measures are available for this purpose 1. Deactivation
switches. These switches can be used to deactivate the driver or passenger airbag. The
airbag function states are indicated by special lamps.2. In the USA, where there have
been approx. 130 fatalities caused by airbags, attempts are being made to reduce
aggressive inflation by introducing "depowered airbags".
• These are airbags whose gas-inflator power has been reduced by 20...30 %, which
itself reduces the inflation speed, the inflation severity and the risk of injury to "out-
ofposition" occupants. "Depowered airbags" can thus be depressed more easily by
large and heavy occupants, i.e. they have a reduced energy-absorption capacity. It is
therefore essential above all with regard to the possibility of severe frontal impacts for
the occupants to fasten their seatbelts.3. "Intelligent airbag systems".
• The introduction of improved sensing functions and control options for the airbag
inflation process, with the accompanying improvement of the protective effect, is
intended to result in a step-by-step reduction in the risk of injury.

Acceleration sensors:
• Acceleration sensors for impact detection are integrated directly in the ECU (belt
tightener, front airbag)and mounted at selected points on the left and right body sides
(side airbag) or in the vehicle's front-end deformation area (upfront sensors for
"intelligent airbag systems").
• The precision of these sensors is crucial in saving lives. They are generally surface-
micromechanical sensors consisting of fixed and moving finger structures and spring
pins. A special process is used to incorporate the "spring/mass system" on the surface
of a silicon wafer.
 • Since the sensors only have low working capacitance (≈1 pF), it is necessary to
accommodate the evaluation electronics in the same housing so as to avoid
straycapacitance and other forms of interference.

Gas inflators:
The pyrotechnical propellant charges of the gas inflators for generating the airbag
inflation gas (mainly nitrogen) and for actuating belt tighteners are activated by an
electrically operated firing element.
The gas inflator in question inflates the airbag with nitrogen. The driver's airbag
integrated in the steering-wheel hub (volume 35...67 l) or the passenger airbag installed
in the glove box (70...150 l) is inflated approx. 30 ms after firing.

Figure 3.8. Combined ECU for belt tighteners and front/side airbags
.

BUMPER DESIGN FOR SAFETY

A bumper is a shield made of steel, aluminum, rubber, or plastic that is mounted on

the front and rear of a passenger car. When a low speed collision occurs, the
bumper system absorbs the shock to prevent or reduce damage to the car
The front and rear of the vehicle should be protected in such a manner that low-speed
collisions will only damage the vehicle slightly, or not at all. Prescribed bumper
evaluation tests (US Part 581, Canada CMVSS 215, and ECE-R 42) specify minimum
requirements in terms of energy absorption and installed bumper height.
 Figure 3.9. Front bumper of a car.

Bumper evaluation tests in accordance with US Part 581 (4 km/h barrier collision, 4
km/h pendulum tests) must be passed by a bumper system whose energy absorber is
of the no- damage absorber type.
The requirements of the ECE standard are satisfied by plastically deformable
retaining elements located between the bumper and the vehicle body structure. In
addition to sheet steel, many bumpers are manufactured using fiber-reinforced plastics
and aluminum sections

Figure 3.10. Cross sectional view of bumpers 1. Shock-absorber system, 2 Energy-absorbing PUR-foam
systems
 UNIT IV COLLISION WARNING AND AVOIDANCE

• COLLISION WARNING SYSTEM

• CAUSES OF REAR END COLLISION
• FRONTAL OBJECT DETECTION
• REAR VEHICLE OBJECT DETECTION SYSTEM
• OBJECT DETECTION SYSTEM WITH BRAKING SYSTEM INTERACTIONS.

1. COLLISION WARNING SYSTEM

Collision Warning with Auto Brake is an active safety system that helps the driver to
avoid or mitigate rear-end collisions.
It uses forward-looking sensors to detect obstacles ahead of the vehicle.
When a high risk for a rear-end collision is detected the system helps the driver by
providing a warning and brake support.
If the driver does not react in time and a collision is judged to be unavoidable, the
system will automatically brake the vehicle.
This may not avoid the accident, but the consequences can be reduced.
This system is introduced in two steps. The first generation, called Collision
Warning with Brake Support, is currently on the market in the new Volvo S80 allowing
activation on vehicles that are moving or have been detected as moving. The second
generation, called Collision Warning with Auto Brake
Collision Warning with Auto Brake where the area in front of the vehicle is
continuously monitored with the help of a long-range radar and a forward-sensing
wide-angle camera fitted in front of the interior rear-view mirror.
A warning and brake support will be provided for collisions with other vehicles, both
moving and stationary.
If the driver does not intervene in spite of the warning and the possible collision is
judged to be unavoidable; intervention braking is automatically applied to slow down the
car. This aims at reducing impact speeds and thus the risk for consequences.
 Figure 4.1. Schematic of collision warning system.

Components of collision warning system:

• Sensor System
Information about the traffic situation in front of the host vehicle is obtained
from two sensors:- A 77-GHz mechanically-scanning forward looking radar,
mounted in the vehicles grille, which measures target information such as range,
range rate and angle in front of the vehicle in a 15 degree field-of-view.
A 640*480 pixel black and white progressive scan CMOS camera, mounted
behind the windscreen, which is used for classifying the objects, e.g. as vehicles,
in a 48-degree field-overview. Since the camera is used for reporting both vision
objects and lane markings, the field of view was chosen to work for both.
 Figure 4.2. Collision warning system in vehicles.

• Collision Warning
The Collision Warning (CW) function is targeting to avoid or mitigate
collisions by means of warning the driver ahead of a possible collision.
The system requires high usability, low number of nuisance alarms and an
efficient Human Machine Interface (HMI).
The Collision Warning system should provide a relative late warning in order
to reduce nuisance alarms and to reduce the possible misuse where an early
warning system may build a trust that is falsely interpreted by the driver to allow
for execution of non-driving tasks. The activation of the Collision Warning will
therefore approximately occur when the driving situation is considered to be
unpleasant.
However, it shall allow the driver to brake to avoid or mitigate an accident
provided the following distance was initially longer than the warning distance.

Functions:
Threat Assessment
▪ The aim of the threat assessment is to understand if the information from
the forward sensing system shows that there is a risk for collision
 ▪ The first step is to approve a lead vehicle as staying in the forward path
within a given time to collision utilizing intra-vehicle and yaw-rate
information.
▪ Given an approved lead vehicle a second step calculates a total warning
distance, i.e. the predicted distance required for avoiding a collision.
▪ The total warning distance base calculation is derived from a sum of three
distinct distance calculations.
▪ The first is the driver reaction distance which is obtained from the
predicted driver reaction time multiplied by vehicle speed.
▪ The second is the system reaction distance which is obtained from the
system reaction time multiplied by vehicle speed.
▪ The third is the braking distance to avoid impact using the current
physical states of the lead vehicle and the host vehicle using the constant
acceleration model for the behavior of the host and the target vehicle
closely mimicking the CAMP late warning algorithm.
▪ The sum of above provides a total warning distance.
▪ If the distance to the forward vehicle becomes lower than the total
warning distance a warning is to be issued.

Collision Warning HMI

▪ An efficient HMI(Human Machine Interface) for a warning system is
characterized by a low driver reaction time, as this is crucial for
improving the possibility for the driver to mitigate or even avoid a
collision.
▪ An efficient HMI puts requirements on low false and nuisance alarm
rates, since there is a risk for overexposure that may lead to drivers
deactivating the system.
▪ The warning interface is a dual modality warning incorporating visual
and audible channels.
 ▪ The visual warning is a flashing red horizontal line located in the lower
part of the windshield in the forward direction of the driver.
▪ The sound consists of tone burst with harmonics content.
▪ When the audible warning is active the sound system is muted. The
Collision Warning can be turned off by a main switch.
▪ The system includes a warning distance setting using three levels. The
levels have been defined by balancing driver behavior in late brake
situations versus normal driving behavior.
▪ The warning distance settings are differentiated by the deceleration level
used in the different settings the predicted brake ability by the driver.
▪ They also reduce warnings in normal driving situations to different levels.

Figure 4.3. Collision Warning head-up display

Driver Over ride:

▪ The objective of the driver override function is to inhibit a brake
intervention when the driver has the situation under control. However,
this is difficult or even impossible to measure and therefore driver inputs
as steering and braking activities are considered instead, as these are the
natural countermeasures in a collision event.
▪ The release of the accelerator pedal is considered, as this indicates that
any further acceleration is undesired, and it can be assumed that the driver
is thereby acknowledging a collision risk.
 ▪ Since the level of action that is required to activate a steering or brake
override depends on the driver and on the traffic situation, the decision
threshold is empirically determined through extensive testing in real life
traffic situations with a large number of drivers.

Auto Brake
▪ It is beneficial to the driver to get support in the upcoming collision event.
This can be achieved by reducing the collision energy by optimizing
driver initiated braking or through automatically putting on the brakes
prior to the collision event.
▪ When providing autonomous interventions that override or complement
the driver’s actions, one has to ensure that customer satisfaction is not
negatively affected by false interventions.
▪ Customer acceptance is crucial in order to increase take rates and thus to
increase the overall real- life safety benefit of the system. It is therefore
necessary to implement a decision making strategy that reduces the
amount of false interventions while not missing collision events where
the driver needs support. Therefore, an intervention decision should be
based on two main information categories: traffic situation data and
driver actions. The traffic situation data is used to quantify the risk for a
collision event, in other words a threat assessment is performed.
▪ This assessment will never be perfect as sensor information is usually a
subset of the totally available information and mostly affected by
latencies. So, a collision may appear to be unavoidable but is in reality
avoidable. Hence, a driver that takes distinct steering and/or braking
action is judged to be in control of the situation and should be trusted.
The driver override function is to detect these distinct driver actions.
▪ As soon as the support system has performed the threat assessment and
driver override detection, the outcome can be weighted by the brake
intervention strategy and a decision on an autonomous brake
intervention can be taken
Functions of collision warning: System
functionality:
• Alerting the driver
• Braking control
• Restricted steering Driver functionality:
• Changing lanes
• Turning the system on and off
• Approaching another vehicle or Non vehicle obstacle

2. REAR-IMPACT COLLISION WARNING SYSTEM (RICWS):

1. Common factors that contribute to rear-end collisions include by driver inattention

or distraction, tailgating, panic stops, and reduced traction due to weather or worn
pavement.
2. Rear impact crashes are the most frequent type of bus accidents.
3. Transit buses are particularly susceptible to rear impact collisions because of their
frequent stops, which often occur in traffic lanes.
4. The majorities of bus collisions occur while the bus is decelerating or stopped.
5. The preponderance of crashes occurs with buses stopped during daylight hours, in
good weather conditions, while traversing a straight path, and with the striking
vehicle attempting no avoidance or corrective action.
6. Rear-end collisions are common accident scenarios and a common cause of these accidents is
driver distraction and thus not reacting in time.

3. FRONTAL OBJECT DETECTION

Figure 4.4. System overview of frontal object detection

 Figure 4.5. Schematic of frontal object detection system

SYSTEM OVERVIEW
▪ The Sensor system has two cameras that can detect vehicles in the medium and far range are installed by
the side of a rear-view mirror and at the ceiling above the back seat and the two sonar sensors that can
measure the distance in the near range are installed at the front and rear bumpers.
▪ Because the environment of the vehicle changes relatively fast as the speed ofa ego-vehicle is high, we
acquire 2 images of 1 field with 640×240 for avoiding the motion flow and use 320×240 image by sub-
sampling and acquire 2 signals of sonar sensors successively.

Determination Of The Day And Night Times

▪ The environment of a moving vehicle greatly varies, it is difficult to detect vehicles
using a single feature or pre-established vehicle templates.
▪ Various features or templates can be used for various environments, and by applying
the appropriate algorithm to the current environment the day or night time can be
determined.

Vehicle Detection in the Day Time

▪ The detection system in the day time consists of 4 parts, the preprocessing module
working on the input raw image, the vehicle candidate extraction module by a
shadow region and a template, the validation module by a prior knowledge, and the
fusion module for fusing sonar and image data.
1) Preprocessing:
2) Vehicle Candidate Extraction:
3) Vehicle Candidate Validation
4) Vehicle Detection Using Sonar Sensors

Figure 4.6. Determination of the light condition

Figure 4.7. Schematic of Vehicle Detection System in the day time

 Figure 4.8. Vehicle Candidates Extraction

Figure 4.9.The symmetry rate and edge angle map

Figure 4.10. Vehicle detection at near distance

4. REAR VEHICLE OBJECT DETECTION SYSTEM
▪ Rear object detection systems monitor a specific area behind a commercial motor
vehicle, detect objects, and provide warnings to drivers when they are approaching an
object behind the vehicle while in reverse. These systems assist the driver in avoiding
collisions during backing or parking maneuvers.
▪ Rear object detection systems detect moving and stationary objects located within a
specific area behind a commercial motor vehicle while it is backing up. Currently
available systems can detect objects within a range of approximately 10 to 20 feet
behind a vehicle.
▪ They can be integrated with other sensors, such as side object detection sensors to
cover other blind spot areas around a vehicle.
▪ Audible and/or visual distance-based alerts that vary depending upon the closeness of
the vehicle to an obstacle are the types of warnings that can be provided to a driver
through a processing and/or display unit in the cab.
▪ The sensor units located on the back of the vehicle can consist of different types of
detection technology, such as radar or sonar.
▪ Ultrasonic technology or sonar (Sound Navigation And Ranging) determines the
range of objects by emitting a transmitter pulse of ultrasonic energy. o The
resultant echo is detected by a receiver as it is reflected from the detected object.
o The emitter is a membrane that transforms mechanical energy into a chirp
(inaudible sound wave) and sends this sound out toward the target area.
o When the sound encounters an object, it is reflected back to the receiver circuit
that is tuned to the frequency of the emitter, which then transfers the data to a
driver display unit.
Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging) technology is also used for rear object
detection systems. Radar typically operates in the ultra-high-frequency or microwave
range of the radio- frequency spectrum.
o These radio frequency waves are transmitted from the vehicle at defined
intervals within a specific coverage area.
o The sensor collects echoes from electromagnetic waves that bounce off objects
behind the vehicle. These echoes are sent to a signal processing unit and
communicated to a driver interface.
o Some processing units utilize algorithms for object detection, object tracking,
and angle measurement to provide specific distance information.
Rear object detection systems provide audible and/or visual alerts to warn drivers
when objects are detected. Some systems indicate the vehicle's distance from a
detected object. For example, the driver interface may consist of a graphical or digital
visual display that shows the distance from the vehicle to a specific object. Other visual
alerts could consist of a series of lights which change color or light up as objects are
detected. These visual alerts can be used in combination with audible alerts that vary
in tone and frequency as the vehicle moves closer to an object.
Rear object detection systems can be activated manually when needed or
automatically for continuous operation. Some rear object detection systems are
connected directly to the vehicle's backup lights, which activate automatically when
the vehicle is shifted into reverse. Other systems are activated when the key is put into
the ignition or the vehicle is put into operation. When the systems are activated, their
operation is "hands-free," and the driver can focus on safely operating the vehicle.