MEET THE SAFE-UP PARTNERS
Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika), RWTH Aachen University
Who belongs to your SAFE-UP team?
ika is involved in SAFE-UP with researchers from three of our six departments. In WP2 (Future safety- critical scenarios) Fabian Russ, Nicolas Wagener, and Timo Woopen (Manager of Vehicle Intelligence and Automated Driving) are focusing on the integration of VRU behavioural models into traffic simulation. Julia Pelzer and Dr. phil. Stefan Ladwig (Manager of Traffic Psychology and Acceptance) are setting the basis for the model development with user studies from a psychological point of view. In WP4 (Passive safety systems) and WP5 (Safety assessment methodologies) Daniel Zeuss, Julian Becker, and Dr.-Ing. Dinesh Thirunavukkarasu (Manager of Vehicle Structures) focus on the investigation and assessment of restraint systems in the context of AD-enabled seating positions. They lead the related task 4.3 and contribute to the project with their expertise in Finite Element occupant simulation, human body model application, and restraint system modelling.
What does ika bring to the project?
ika’s contribution to the SAFE-UP project is separated into two fields. First, within WP2, we are building upon an existing Vulnerable Road User simulator at ika and developing a new bicycle simulator. The task includes conducting VR user studies, developing behavioural models, integrating them into the software environment, and analysing critical scenarios. In the second field (within WP4 and WP5), we are building upon our knowledge and experience from previous EU projects to define, simulate, and evaluate relevant occupant safety use cases as a major contribution to the passive safety demonstrator. In doing so, we can refer to our simulation cluster, many years of experience in full vehicle simulation and the application of latest human body models.
Why did you want to take part in SAFE-UP?
As part of RWTH Aachen University, located in Aachen, in the centre of Europe, the Institute for Automotive Engineering strives to contribute to international and European research initiatives and promote cross-border scientific cooperation in the areas of safety, driving experience, and sustainability. ika researches the vehicle as a whole and the interaction of all individual components. Vehicle automation in the context of safety and comfort/driving experience forms a core topic of our research. The formulated objective of SAFE-UP, which is to investigate proactive safety systems and tools for an upgrading road environment, aligns well with the research fields at ika. Our ambition within the project is to investigate and demonstrate the potential of integrated safety functions. We see the use and further development of virtual methods and tools as an important enabler in this context.
Which other initiatives are you involved in?
As well as SAFE-UP, ika was and is currently involved in several related initiatives at both the EU and federal levels. We are participating in the ongoing projects HI-DRIVE (www.hi-drive.eu) and HADRIAN (www.hadrianproject.eu), which address the challenges of introducing higher levels of vehicle automation and holistic approaches for driver role integration and automation allocation. In addition, ika was involved in OSCCAR (www.osccarproject.eu), which ended in November 2021 and dealt with future occupant safety in AD vehicles. Another AD-related ongoing project at the federal level is the UNICARagil (www.unicaragil.de) project, in which four disruptive modular automated vehicle concepts are built. In addition, ika is involved in various projects to create suitable test environments for evaluating and testing new automated driving functions, such as ACCorD (www.accord-testfeld.de), KoMoDnext (www.komodnext.org), and HDV-Mess.
Related deliverables
D2.4 Definition of the future use cases: scope and data to build digital twins of use cases
D2.5 DESCRIPTION METRICS FOR TRAFFIC INTERACTIONS