Typical pedestrian accident scenarios for the development of autonomous emergency braking test protocols

• Published in: Accident analysis and prevention 2014-12, Vol.73, p.73-80
• Main Authors: Lenard, James, Badea-Romero, Alexandro, Danton, Russell
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accident analysis; Accident conditions; Accident scenario; Accidents; Accidents, Traffic - prevention & control; Accidents, Traffic - statistics & numerical data; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Automobiles; Autonomous; Autonomous emergency braking; Biological and medical sciences; Braking; Child; Child, Preschool; Cluster analysis; Emergencies; Equipment Design; Equipment Safety; Female; Forensic engineering; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Models, Theoretical; Pedestrian; Pedestrians; Prevention and actions; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Sex Factors; Test configuration; United Kingdom; Walking - injuries; Walking - statistics & numerical data; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0001-4575; 1879-2057
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2014.08.012

•Cluster analysis on two GB datasets identified common pedestrian accident scenarios.•Main scenario was a small person walking across road, good visibility, fine weather.•A test setup was defined to assess AEB performance in the main accident scenario.•Additional test variations accounted for less common accident conditions. An increasing proportion of new vehicles are being fitted with autonomous emergency braking systems. It is difficult for consumers to judge the effectiveness of these safety systems for individual models unless their performance is evaluated through track testing under controlled conditions. This paper aimed to contribute to the development of relevant test conditions by describing typical circumstances of pedestrian accidents. Cluster analysis was applied to two large British databases and both highlighted an urban scenario in daylight and fine weather where a small pedestrian walks across the road, especially from the near kerb, in clear view of a driver who is travelling straight ahead. For each dataset a main test configuration was defined to represent the conditions of the most common accident scenario along with test variations to reflect the characteristics of less common accident scenarios. Some of the variations pertaining to less common accident circumstances or to a minority of casualties in these scenarios were proposed as optional or supplementary test elements for an outstanding performance rating. Many considerations are incorporated into the final design and implementation of an actual testing regime, such as cost and the state of development of technology; only the representation of accident data lay within the scope of this paper. It would be desirable to ascertain the wider representativeness of the results by analysing accident data from other countries in a similar manner.