Development of performance specifications for collision avoidance systems for lane change, merging, and backing. Task 6, Interim report : testbed systems design and associated facilities

Transferred from EDL on 5/14/2008PDFTech Reporthttp://ntl.bts.gov/lib/jpodocs/repts_te/5366.pdfDTNH22-93-X-07022Collision avoidance systemsTestingLane changingMerging controlBrakingPerformance based specificationsSystem architectureTRW Inc. Space & Electronics GroupTalmadge, SamDixon, DaveQuon, BillTRW Inc. Space & Electronics GroupUnited States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Office of Crash Avoidance ResearchNTL-INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS-Collision Avoidance Systems (Vehicles)Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program OfficeThis report represents the documentation of the design of the testbed. The purposes of the testbed are twofold 1) Establish a foundation for estimating collision avoidance effectiveness and 2) Provide information pertinent to setting performance specifications for a lane change/merge collision avoidance system (CAS) The testbed will accomplish these goals by monitoring the ground truth, driver behavior and inputs from vehicle sensors and storing this information digitally. This is a significant advance over current methods of manually viewing information stored on video tape. The key subsystems that make the testbed unique are the scanning laser and the eye tracker. The scanning laser will be mounted on the right rear corner of the car and will scan a full 360o. A prototype version of this laser has been testbed and shown to be effective and providing range data on cars out to a range in excess of 200 feet The scanning laser will be able to generate trajectories of passing cars, and categorize them according to their length and width Besides providing ground truth information, the scanning laser will also serve as a stand-in CAS Information from the laser plus other vehicle sensor inputs will be processed by a digital signal processor (DSP) and will decide if a warning shall be presented to the driver. The DSP in the data acquisition system will communicate with a DSP built into the control electronics of a display system that will be built into GFE car by the Vehicle Research and Test Center (VRTC) of East Liberty, OH The second subsystem that makes the testbed unique is the eye tracker. This device will be able to track the driver gaze direction at an update rate of 60 Hz Using a lightweight, relatively unobtrusive headband, the eye tracker accommodates full rotation of the head, from left blind spot to right blind spot. The eye tracker will be able to provide a continuous record of gaze direction as the driver executes a lane change or merge maneuver. In addition we will be able to determine what, if any, effect the introduction of a CAS has on the driver's behavior. All of this data is stored in digital form, so that any lane change maneuver can be examined to determine that particular driver\ue2\u20ac\u2122s choice of gap spacings (fore and aft), relative speeds, duration time and gaze direction before, during and after the maneuver Post processing software can easily compile statistics for each driver and gather this data over many drivers, providing an empirical data base for modeling