The test vehicle identifies the electromagnetic waves using a multi-antenna system in a frequency band of 2.4 GHz, with the angle of arrival and identification determined by a signal processing unit. The distance between the pedestrian and the vehicle is calculated on the basis of the signal's travelling time between the interrogation from the car and the response from the transponder - essentially the same principle as used in echo sounding. If, on the basis of this data, the system anticipates an impending collision, the driver is given a warning. If the driver does not respond, further measures can be triggered in the car to avoid an accident or mitigate its consequences - and, in the future, emergency braking will be applied as a last resort. "Thanks to AMULETT we will be able to draw very precise conclusions from the sensor data in future. This grants us the possibility of giving road traffic safety another significant boost - because for us, every accident victim is one too many," adds Rasshofer. In the BMW Group Research and Technology prototype, the driver receives feedback via the Head-up Display, similar to Night Vision with pedestrian recognition already available today. "Part of our development work is to ensure that feedback from driver assistance and information systems is designed in such a way that the driver is on no account alarmed, that it can be intuitively interpreted, and that is will lead to the appropriate response," says Rasshofer. Ongoing research is thus focused on the exclusion of false alarms (e.g. from AMULETT carriers sitting inside a car) and the system's evaluation ability when dealing with many carriers - e.g. in city traffic.

The distance between the pedestrian and the vehicle is calculated on the basis of the signal's travelling time between the interrogation from the car and the response from the transponder -

The best accident is the one that never happens
The BMW Group is systematically striving to develop driver assistance and information systems that are targeted at helping motorists to defuse hazardous situations on the road. Here special attention is also directed at the most vulnerable people concerned: pedestrians, cyclists and other non-motorised road users. It explains why BMW is the world's first car manufacturer to offer BMW Night Vision with pedestrian recognition in the new BMW 7 Series. After all, a large proportion of fatal pedestrian accidents happen at night, many of them on the open road.

But what happens if there is no line of sight between the sensors in the vehicle - in the case of Night Vision those in the thermal imaging camera - and the pedestrian, e.g. in busy daytime traffic? This is precisely what the AMULETT research effort is tackling. Accident statistics repeatedly and unambiguously show that in 40 percent of all fatal pedestrian accidents, the driver does not see the person until just before the impact. In the case of children the situation is even more dramatic. According to the 2006 figures from Germany's Federal Statistical Office, 48 percent of accident victims between the age of six and 14 ran onto the road without looking out for traffic. 25 percent of accidents involving children happened when they suddenly appeared from behind a visual barrier. "With AMULETT, the research partners have succeeded in taking a further significant step towards raising pedestrian safety in road traffic. Thanks to the improved communications this system provides, road users who are obscured from view can be identified early on and accidents can be prevented," says Prof. Dr. Dr. Benedikt von Hebenstreit of the Centre of Transport and Safety at Zurich's University of Applied Sciences.

On 6 May the AMULETT project will be presented to industry specialists and the public during a special event including a programme of talks and a live demonstration. Further information can be found on the homepage www.projekt-amulett.de


Photo Credit : BMW