Adaptive intervention logic for automated driving systems based on injury risk minimization

Performance improvement of advanced driver assistance systems yields two major benefits: increasingly rapid progress towards autonomous driving and a simultaneous advance in vehicle safety. Integration of multiple advanced driver assistance systems leads to the so-called automated driving system, which can intervene jointly on braking and steering to avert impending crashes. Nevertheless, obstacles such as stationary vehicles and buildings can interpose between the opponent vehicles and the working field of advanced driver assistance systems’ sensors, potentially resulting in an inevitable collision state. Currently available devices cannot properly handle an inevitable collision state, because its occurrence is not subject to evaluations by the system. In the present work, criteria for intervention on braking and steering are introduced, based on the vehicle occupants’ injury risk. The system must monitor the surrounding and act on the degrees of freedom adapting to the evolution of the scenario, following an adaptive logic. The model-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop for such adaptive intervention are first introduced. To highlight the potential benefits offered by the adaptive advanced driver assistance systems, simulation software has been developed. The adaptive logic has been tested in correspondence of three inevitable collision state conditions between two motor vehicles: at each instant, the adaptive logic attitude of creating impact configurations associated with minimum injury risk is ultimately demonstrated.