The objectives of the Automotive Collision Avoidance Systems Development Program are achieved by a consortium comprised of both industry and academic participants. This organization is referred to as the ACAS Consortium. The make up of this eight-member ACAS Consortium is as follows:
Full Members:
• Delco Electronics Corporation (DE)/Automotive Electronics Development (AED)
• Delco Electronics Corporation/Advanced Development & System Integration
• General Motors Corporation (GM)/NAO Safety & Restraint Center
• General Motors Corporation/Research & Development Center (GM-R&D)
• Hughes Research Laboratories, Incorporated (HRL)
Associate Members:
• Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM)
• University of California-Davis (UC-Davis)
• Systems Technology, Incorporated (STI)
The Automotive Electronics Development organization of the Delco Electronics Corporation provides the overall program management direction for the ACAS Program. Financial assistance for the program is provided by both the U.S. Government and Consortium members (GM, DE & HRL). The U.S. Government has sponsored this activity through the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), in accordance with the goals of the Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP). The U.S. Government actively participates in ACAS Program activities in support of the program objectives. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administers the ACAS Program on behalf of the U.S. Government.
The primary goal of the ACAS Program is to provide a highly focused effort to accelerate the development of active crash avoidance systems for the automotive industry. It is envisioned that the ACAS Program will assist in the development of a comprehensive collision warning system, which is capable of detecting and warning the driver of potential hazard conditions in the forward, side, and rear regions of the vehicle. The system will incorporate the use of long range radar or optical sensors that are capable of detecting potential hazards in the front of the vehicle, short range sensors to warn the driver of nearby objects when changing traffic lanes or backing up, and a lane detection system that alerts the driver when the vehicle is changing traffic lanes. The current program effort is focused on providing warnings to the driver, rather than take active control of the vehicle.
It is imperative that the kind of implemented system that is envisaged provide utility to the general automotive consumer. For such a system to gain acceptance by the consumer, it must be reasonably priced, provide highly reliable performance, and provide functionality. In order to achieve these goals, the ACAS Program has relied heavily on the principles of system engineering as a framework to guide the highly focus design effort.
The activities of the ACAS program can largely be grouped into three main themes. They are:
• Refinement: Many partially developed existing technologies/systems have shown promise as an essential component for a collision warning system. Unfortunately, many of these components have not reached their full market potential as a result of economic considerations, such as: expensive manufacturing processes, lack of market pull or technology push, etc. Consequently, it is the objective of this program to undertake appropriate activities to further the refinement of promising crash avoidance capable technologies/systems in order to achieve cost reductions by improving the manufacturing processes.
• Advanced Development: The next goal is the accelerated development of promising immature technologies which are identified to be the essential crash avoidance components. It is imperative to leverage the advanced features of these technologies/systems in order to enhance and advance the collision warning system functionality.
• Human Factors: The influence of human factors considerations on the crash warning system design is deemed crucial and essential. A collision warning system will be of little use to the consumer if the driver can not effectively be made aware of hazardous roadway situations. The warning cues must not be annoying, intrusive, or confusing. It is the objective of this program to investigate the preferred method of providing warning cues to the driver. The available techniques could be visual, auditory, or proprioceptive.
The ACAS Program will assist in the component development of a comprehensive collision warning system. This system will be capable of detecting and warning the driver of potential hazard conditions in the forward, side, and rear regions of the vehicle. Figure 1.1 conceptually illustrates the envisioned architecture for such a system.
Information flows among the various system modules, from the sensing systems (i.e.: Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Side Collision Warning (SCW), vision, and on-board vehicle), to the Collision Warning Processing Module, and eventually the Driver-Vehicle Interface (DVI) which provides the appropriate warning cues to the driver. Each of the sensing systems receives information about the Host vehicle states (such as: yaw rate, vehicle speed, etc.) and sends appropriate parameters/information (such as: lane path, detected vehicle speed and range, etc.) relative to the Host vehicle. The Collision Warning Processing Module will combine the information from the active sensing systems (i.e.: vision, radar, etc.) and passive sensors (i.e.: on-board sensors used to determine Host vehicle states) in order to accomplish object detection, target tracking, in-path target identification, and threat assessment. If the identified detected target is assessed as being a potential hazard to the Host vehicle, then appropriate warning cues will be initiated and provided to the driver in the form of visual, auditory or tactile cues.
Figure 1.1: Conceptual Architecture for a Collision Warning System.