AB Dynamics, which is based in the UK, and its sister company Dynamic Research, Inc. (DRI) have jointly introduced Soft Pedestrian 360, an advanced pedestrian ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems) target for the automotive industry.
Soft Pedestrian 360 was created to improve sensor perception and categorisation testing, as well as to reduce testing time and costs through enhanced durability.
In order to increase the realism of the target, Soft Pedestrian 360 includes articulation in the knee, hip, shoulder and neck areas.
With actively articulated knees that allow the hip and knee to move independently of one another, the gait is controlled, and a wider range of movements can be accurately replicated.
Design objectives and features of Soft Pedestrian 360
According to DRI chief engineer Joseph Kelly, the ongoing advancements in active safety systems require more precise and comprehensive representations of pedestrians.
Kelly stated that “Ultimately, it is not possible to know which attributes or characteristics of a pedestrian will be used by ADAS development engineers to categorise a given sensed object as a pedestrian”.
Therefore, accurate representations of pedestrians are crucial to assist engineers in developing effective active safety systems and testing their performance in real-world scenarios.
Soft Pedestrian 360 includes attributes such as actively controlled gait articulation, and optional arm and head articulations, which increase the realism of the pedestrian target.
Kelly also noted that the main objectives during the design of Soft Pedestrian 360 were to reduce the likelihood of damaging the articulation mechanisms during a collision, and to minimise the number of exposed “hard points” when the dummy is disassembled after impact.
This was done to decrease the likelihood of damage to the vehicle being tested.
Soft Pedestrian 360 was designed to minimise damage to the test vehicle by ensuring compliance, reducing external hard points, and utilising a modular design that decreases the mass of individual components that could cause damage upon contact.
To achieve this, the limbs, head and mounting pole connect to the torso via foam blocks that engage with corresponding sockets in the torso.
In the event of a collision, these components will separate without any exposed hard points, reducing the likelihood of damage to the test vehicle.
To ensure the safety of the vehicle during impact, the servos controlling the limbs and head of the pedestrian are enclosed in foam and integrated within each component.
This design prevents the limbs from detaching upon impact.
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