Decision logic of an active braking system for powered two wheelers

Powered two-wheeler (PTW) users are exposed to a high risk of accidents leading to severe injuries and fatalities. The trend of PTW accidents has pointed out the need for an intervention on PTW safety with new and effective solutions. One of the possible answers came from the EC-funded Powered two wheeler Integrated Safety (PISa) project which identi- fied the autonomous braking of the vehicle as one of the most promising safety functions for PTWs. The aim of this paper is to report on the design of the decision logic for deploying a PTW autonomous braking sys- tem in case of an imminent collision. Rationales and limitations for this pioneering application are given. The feasibility of the autonomous deceleration is demonstrated by an experimental study conducted with the PISa test bike implementing a prototype of the autonomous braking system, named the Active Braking (AB) system.