FRAMES - Prewarning system for the adaptive-human-vehicle detection and accident prevention

Status:

completed 05/2018

Aims:

In the research and development project, an early warning system was developed and tested to provide early warning of a potential accident, including the ability to provide concealed road users with hidden obstructions or other obstructions.

This warning would be especially focused on "weak" users of roads, such as pedestrians or cyclists, to enable them to actively avoiding accidents.

The double warning would help both participants to avoid accidents while car-based systems only warn one company of the potential accident.

At the same time, the repeatedly identified behavioral adjustments (risk compensation) were examined, as well as potential behavioral and design-based countermeasures for the technical system. Both goals were achieved.

Activities/Methods:

• intensive review of the literature regarding pedestrian and cyclist movements
• behavioral observations in companies and testing areas
• interviews, questionnaires, expertinterviews, workshops, consulting with the praxis-council
• simulations on the company properties, in testing areas on the road, in the laboratory, traffic simulators and with the researchers themselves in companies

To optimize the technical system, intensified work and development contacts with the relevant industrial players are planned. The system has been effectively validated in computer simulations, in controlled driving examinations with "dummy figures" as pedestrians and in real-life situations on a logistics company's premises.

Results:

Reductions in the number of accidents could be measured, but increased impact speeds and lower brake forces. These findings were related to reduced risk perception and increased speed behavior when using the system.

Such compensation also took place among the weaker road users, who grew in overconfidence on the system, namely the belief the vehicles would stop, even if they themselves were illegally stepping on the road. Several measures, training, design measures have been developed and tested.

It is precisely this area of human-machine interaction research that has to be faced with the constantly growing number of driver assistance systems and has to be put into action with appropriate training and instruction measures in order to achieve the full benefit of such an early warning system.

A market maturity of the technical system would now have to take place after the prototype development of a reduction process and a marketing of the system. Acceptance and interest are very high among all surveyed and involved companies and other users.

The final report covers the research work of the second and third phases of the FRAMES project. In addition to the optimization and reduction of the technical system, typical in- house interactions of the different road user groups were carried out to generate the reference scenarios for the function and performance tests of the system. In addition to didactic-psychological measures, technical and environmental measures were also examined to determine whether and how undesirable behavioral adjustments can be reduced. Thus, it became clear that a high reliability of the system, goes in line with risk-increasing or safety-reducing adaptation reactions, which are currently hardly taken into account by the manufacturers or users or the representatives of the authorities. They are generally not even perceived as dangers, but are very likely to contribute to a change in the accident in an undesirable manner. With its equal combination of technical development and behavioral science basis, FRAMES is a novelty in the investigation of such systems and its conditions of use in the field of driver assistance. For occupational prevention tasks, therefore, these findings and further examinations in everyday work and road situations on official service are strongly advised.

Last Update: