Overview
Over 6 000 fatalities on European roads in 2001 were related to powered two-wheelers (PTWs), representing 15% of road victims. The European Commission (EC) launched the 3rd European Road Safety Action Plan with the ambitious goal of reducing the fatalities by 50% in 2010.
The medium term objective was to cut the number of persons killed or severely injured by around 75% by 2025, while the long term vision is to render road transport as safe as all other modes. To this goal, the motorcycle industry could play a role in improving the safety features of its products, while keeping their characteristics of versatility. R&D activities were carried out in the project, addressed to in-depth studies of a suitable safety strategy for PTWs in order to avoid road accidents and/or mitigate their consequences.
Motorcycle safety is a complex concept involving several aspects (preventative, active and passive safety) and several factors (mechanical, human and infrastructural). It was expected that an integrated approach to safety issues will help to describe each different area in which improvement is possible. This approach is believed to be an efficient way to reach the ambitious goal fixed by EC Roadmap for 2010. This integrated approach would establish a matrix relationship between the three main factors (or pillars) for safety (motorbike, motorcyclist and infrastructure) and the different aspects related to accident dynamics, from before-precipitating event to crash event, dealing with preventive, active and passive safety.
SIM focuses on the vehicle safety aspects, including the human-machine-interaction covering preventive, active and passive elements. But the most relevant element in SIM is the ambitious objective of developing a comprehensive safety strategy for motorcycles, structuring co-operation with existing research projects in order to cover adequately all the different fields of application.
The goal of SIM was to develop an innovative vehicle with new active, preventive and passive safety devices that will result in decreasing the number of powered two-wheeler (PTW) accidents and related consequences for PTW riders (injuries and deaths).
In this context, main objectives of SIM were:
- to identify a suitable safety strategy for PTWs;
- to enhance preventive and active safety acting on electronic vehicle management and improving Human-Machine-Interaction (HMI);
- to focus on integral passive safety devices;
- to integrate all aspects in a prototype (prototypes of devices fitted on a concept vehicle).
The main technical activities in SIM were:
- safety Strategy: to identify main parameters affecting PTW accident dynamics in main accident scenarios and establish a 'safety strategy' for motorcyclists and linking with other R&D projects about road safety;
- PTW Active Safety: to focus on an improved motorbike concept design in order to enhance the motorcyclist's safety through the improvement of active safety devices (suspensions, brakes, traction control). Further, preventive safety will be considered in terms of HMI and improved comfort;
- PTW Passive Safety: to develop effective passive safety systems for motorcycles that act in case of accident, mitigating the consequences of the crash event;
- integral Safety Solution: to demonstrate the feasibility of integrated safety concepts applied on motorcycle through definition of test bed. Technical tests will be run and evaluation of cost/benefit ratio in terms of potential reduction in accidents and mitigation of consequences will be performed.
In addition, there was a dissemination and exploitation action, aimed at organising and harmonising spreading information and results generated with regard to integrated safety on motorcycles; evaluating guidelines for standardisation activities and market acceptance of the innovative devices analysed and implemented during the project.
Funding
Results
Main results were:
- development of electronic active devices (e.g. enhanced anti-lock braking system, traction control and suspension system) for powered two-wheelers;
- development of a suitable firing algorithm to activate passive safety devices;
- adaptation of protective inflatable devices located on the vehicle (frontal impact airbag) and on the rider (garment);
- implementation of innovative HMI.
On-road and laboratory tests, based on the most relevant accident scenarios, were conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the selected safety system devices (for instance reduction of injuries via inflatable devices, probability of avoiding accidents, etc.) implemented in an integrated concept vehicle.
Innovation aspects
Innovation aspects were mainly a comprehensive approach to the motorcycle safety issue and the technological implementation of the most relevant safety technologies in PTW field.
Within the SIM project activity, a dedicated human machine interface was studied and developed in order to increase the rider attention to the riding primary task. The increasing use of mobile phone and navigation systems as well as other new functions available on board could distract the rider, that could mislead dangerous situation and/or lose motorcycle control.
For this reason a good management of the flow of information provided to the rider as well as an intelligent and almost self-explaining Human Machine Interface (HMI) for the use of devices that increase the motorcycle stability while manoeuvring were studied and developed, so that the rider can be more concentrated on the riding task.
In this view was designed and developed an information management concept board (IMB) able to manage the flow of information in such a way to decrease the rider workload taking into account the need to reach rider's attention avoiding distraction and creating the proper balance of information distribution among the different HMI components.
The great innovation of the SIM project wass due to the fact that nowadays on the motorcycle market an integrated solution like the one studied and developed in this project was not yet available. After-market stand-alone navigation systems or helmet that allows a Bluetooth connection with a mobile phone are examples of what can be available on the shelves as single product. It is well-known that the use of these devices all decrease rider attention on the primary riding task. The idea of an integrated management of infotainment devices and vehicle information could then increase the rider safety while riding. Therefore the effort done within this project can be considered as a good starting point for the future trends.
Technical Implications
Final tests conducted on the integrated active safety system demonstrated a strong enhancement of the active safety level by means of increase of vehicle manoeuvrability without drawbacks on rough surfaces with automatic damping adjustment:
- Reduction of stopping distances by recognizing 'bad road' conditions.
- Wheel spin avoidance while accelerating or braking in curve thanks to the dynamic adaptation of ABS and TCS systems.
- Low sensitivity of performances respect to rider experience (automatic brake distribution with ABS control).
- Comfort improvement
In the last phase of the SIM project airbag jacket and frontal airbag were jointly tested in full scale crash tests in 413 and 114 configuration with PTW impacting at 48 km/h and a passenger car in static position (moving-stationary) or moving at 24 km/h.
From these tests results, the effectiveness of the passive safety systems has been evaluated by measuring biomechanical values obtained on the instrumented dummy, comparing them with data from reference crashes, (i.e. without any passive safety device) performed within APROSYS Project. The effectiveness of the integrated safety systems was demonstrated by the significant reduction obtained for the most relevant injury criteria such as the head acceleration resultant.
Readiness
The result can be exploited in the following way:
- Exploitation of an Hydraulic Control Unit with 3 active hydraulic channels:
- Technical threshold is the detailed definition of the system.
- Commercial threshold are the low production volumes of such a vehicle.
- The acceptance by the end customer is open. Especially the fact that the active system always influences the original handlever feeling needs to be discussed with the marketing of the motorcycle manufacturer and the end customers.
- Exploitation of an Hydraulic Control Unit with 2 ABS channels:
- Technical threshold is the detailed definition of the system. Especially the functionality of the overlay valve needs to be discussed with the end customer and the marketing of the motorcycle manufacturers.
- Commercial threshold are the low production volumes of such a vehicle.
- Exploitation of an Hydraulic Control Unit with 3 active hydraulic channels and a semiactive suspension system:
- Technical threshold is the detailed definition of the system.
- Commercial threshold are the low production volumes of such a vehicle.