Increasing Safety of Vulnerable Road Users in Scenarios With Occlusion: A Collaborative Approach for Smart Infrastructures and Automated Vehicles
The impact of Automated Vehicles (AVs) on road traffic safety has become the focus of discussions among governmental organizations, academia, stakeholders, and OEMs. Questions about how safe the automated driving features should be and how the road infrastructure should be improved for the arrival o...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IEEE
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | IEEE Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10835073/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1825207027656294400 |
|---|---|
| author | Thiago de Borba Ondrej Vaculin Hormoz Marzbani Reza Nakhaie Jazar |
| author_facet | Thiago de Borba Ondrej Vaculin Hormoz Marzbani Reza Nakhaie Jazar |
| author_sort | Thiago de Borba |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The impact of Automated Vehicles (AVs) on road traffic safety has become the focus of discussions among governmental organizations, academia, stakeholders, and OEMs. Questions about how safe the automated driving features should be and how the road infrastructure should be improved for the arrival of this new technology must be clarified to enable full acceptance by the customers and society and prepare the mobility of future cities. The fundamental architecture of automated vehicles comprises perception, planning, decision, and actuation. The operation of the perception system, which is responsible for understanding the environment in which the vehicle is inserted, relies mainly on the onboard sensors. However, the available ranging and vision sensors, e.g., LiDAR, radar, and camera, have several limitations. Scenarios with occlusion present a real challenge for state-of-the-art perception systems. The occlusion, caused by obstructing the sensors’ detection field, limits the vehicle’s perception ability and inhibits the detection of other road users in the surroundings, especially Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). Infrastructure composed of Roadside Units (RSUs) equipped with infrastructure-based sensors can overcome the perception limitations of a system based solely on onboard sensors by monitoring the road environment with a larger field of view and reduced sensitivity to occlusion. This paper presents a collaborative approach for smart infrastructures and automated vehicles for vulnerable road users’ collision avoidance. The proposed extended perception system comprises four main modules: traffic monitoring, long-term motion prediction, collision risk assessment, and trajectory planning. In the event of a safety-critical scenario, the infrastructure generates a safe and comfortable evasive maneuver to avoid a possible collision. Hence, the proposed approach provides a complete solution to overcome scenarios with occluded VRUs. It allows AVs to react to a critical situation with a longer time-to-collision than other systems relying only on onboard sensors, increasing the chance of successful avoidance even when implementing smoother maneuvers. This contributes considerably to the safe and comfortable operation of automated vehicles. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-807df2be6fd54abbbfa0ae7056c8967d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj-art-807df2be6fd54abbbfa0ae7056c8967d2025-02-07T00:01:55ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-01138851888510.1109/ACCESS.2025.352786510835073Increasing Safety of Vulnerable Road Users in Scenarios With Occlusion: A Collaborative Approach for Smart Infrastructures and Automated VehiclesThiago de Borba0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8318-6004Ondrej Vaculin1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8184-7240Hormoz Marzbani2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0168-4005Reza Nakhaie Jazar3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2534-980XCARISSMA Institute of Safety in Future Mobility (C-ISAFE), Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt, GermanyCARISSMA Institute of Safety in Future Mobility (C-ISAFE), Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt, GermanyDepartment of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, School of Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaDepartment of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, School of Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaThe impact of Automated Vehicles (AVs) on road traffic safety has become the focus of discussions among governmental organizations, academia, stakeholders, and OEMs. Questions about how safe the automated driving features should be and how the road infrastructure should be improved for the arrival of this new technology must be clarified to enable full acceptance by the customers and society and prepare the mobility of future cities. The fundamental architecture of automated vehicles comprises perception, planning, decision, and actuation. The operation of the perception system, which is responsible for understanding the environment in which the vehicle is inserted, relies mainly on the onboard sensors. However, the available ranging and vision sensors, e.g., LiDAR, radar, and camera, have several limitations. Scenarios with occlusion present a real challenge for state-of-the-art perception systems. The occlusion, caused by obstructing the sensors’ detection field, limits the vehicle’s perception ability and inhibits the detection of other road users in the surroundings, especially Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). Infrastructure composed of Roadside Units (RSUs) equipped with infrastructure-based sensors can overcome the perception limitations of a system based solely on onboard sensors by monitoring the road environment with a larger field of view and reduced sensitivity to occlusion. This paper presents a collaborative approach for smart infrastructures and automated vehicles for vulnerable road users’ collision avoidance. The proposed extended perception system comprises four main modules: traffic monitoring, long-term motion prediction, collision risk assessment, and trajectory planning. In the event of a safety-critical scenario, the infrastructure generates a safe and comfortable evasive maneuver to avoid a possible collision. Hence, the proposed approach provides a complete solution to overcome scenarios with occluded VRUs. It allows AVs to react to a critical situation with a longer time-to-collision than other systems relying only on onboard sensors, increasing the chance of successful avoidance even when implementing smoother maneuvers. This contributes considerably to the safe and comfortable operation of automated vehicles.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10835073/Automated vehiclesinfrastructure-based sensorsvulnerable road usersocclusionroadside unitroad safety |
| spellingShingle | Thiago de Borba Ondrej Vaculin Hormoz Marzbani Reza Nakhaie Jazar Increasing Safety of Vulnerable Road Users in Scenarios With Occlusion: A Collaborative Approach for Smart Infrastructures and Automated Vehicles IEEE Access Automated vehicles infrastructure-based sensors vulnerable road users occlusion roadside unit road safety |
| title | Increasing Safety of Vulnerable Road Users in Scenarios With Occlusion: A Collaborative Approach for Smart Infrastructures and Automated Vehicles |
| title_full | Increasing Safety of Vulnerable Road Users in Scenarios With Occlusion: A Collaborative Approach for Smart Infrastructures and Automated Vehicles |
| title_fullStr | Increasing Safety of Vulnerable Road Users in Scenarios With Occlusion: A Collaborative Approach for Smart Infrastructures and Automated Vehicles |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increasing Safety of Vulnerable Road Users in Scenarios With Occlusion: A Collaborative Approach for Smart Infrastructures and Automated Vehicles |
| title_short | Increasing Safety of Vulnerable Road Users in Scenarios With Occlusion: A Collaborative Approach for Smart Infrastructures and Automated Vehicles |
| title_sort | increasing safety of vulnerable road users in scenarios with occlusion a collaborative approach for smart infrastructures and automated vehicles |
| topic | Automated vehicles infrastructure-based sensors vulnerable road users occlusion roadside unit road safety |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10835073/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT thiagodeborba increasingsafetyofvulnerableroadusersinscenarioswithocclusionacollaborativeapproachforsmartinfrastructuresandautomatedvehicles AT ondrejvaculin increasingsafetyofvulnerableroadusersinscenarioswithocclusionacollaborativeapproachforsmartinfrastructuresandautomatedvehicles AT hormozmarzbani increasingsafetyofvulnerableroadusersinscenarioswithocclusionacollaborativeapproachforsmartinfrastructuresandautomatedvehicles AT rezanakhaiejazar increasingsafetyofvulnerableroadusersinscenarioswithocclusionacollaborativeapproachforsmartinfrastructuresandautomatedvehicles |