Certainty and Critical Speed for Decision Making in Tests of Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking Systems

This paper starts with depicting the test series carried out by the Transportation Active Safety Institute, with two cars equipped with pedestrian automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems. Then, an AEB analytical model that allows the prediction of the crash speed, stopping distance, and stopping time with a high degree of accuracy is presented. The model has been validated with the test results and can be used for real-time application due to its simplicity. The concept of the active safety margin is introduced and expressed in terms of deceleration, time, and distance in the model. This margin is a criterion that can be used either in the design phase of pedestrian AEB for real-time decision making or as a characteristic indicator in test procedures. Finally, the decision making is completed with the analysis of the behavior of the pedestrian lateral movement and the calculation of the certainty of finding the pedestrian into the crash zone. This model of certainty completes the analysis of decision making and leads to the introduction of the new concept of “critical speed for decision making.” All major variables influencing the performance of pedestrian AEB have been modeled. A proposal of certainty scale in this kind of tests and a set of recommendations are given to improve the efficiency and accuracy of evaluation of pedestrian AEB systems.