On its Hällered test track in Sweden, Volvo is developing some of the most advanced collision warning and auto brake systems. In order to test and verify Volvo’s advanced driver assistance systems, the vehicles are equipped with highly accurate OxTS RT3000 and RT-Range measurement systems.
How these systems work in order to avoid collisions was shown on BBC Horizon this month in an interesting documentary called “Surviving a car crash” (BBC Two, 7th February 2011, 2100 GMT).
In this TV documentary, Dr. Erik Coelingh of Volvo Cars Sweden demonstrates Volvo’s auto-brake feature in a test scenario with a balloon car (inflatable rubber car to lessen the impact). He drives to an intersection and pulls out despite the approaching balloon car from the left. The car, however, stops automatically before hitting the balloon test car, even though Dr. Coelingh’s foot stays on the accelerator.
Volvo, like many other leading car manufacturers, is developing collision avoidance technology to ensure that vehicles start to brake automatically when the sensors on the car detect another vehicle coming close. This is where the OxTS RT-Range comes in. With the RT-Range system, test engineers can measure the relative speed between two (or more) vehicles and the position of one car compared to the other vehicle with highest accuracy.
The RT-Range ADAS development system can do a lot more than that. The RT-Range is the most comprehensive test tool for the development of ADAS technology, giving more vehicle-to-vehicle measurements and more lane positioning measurements than any other system. It is ideal for the development of many active safety features in vehicles, such as ACC, collision avoidance or blind spot detection. The RT-Range works with up to four targets, which can be other vehicles, pedestrians, balloon cars or fixed points, thus ensuring complicated traffic scenarios can be replicated on the test track.
The RT-Range is also ideal for developing lane departure warning and lane keep assistance technology. The RT-Range can accurately measure a vehicle’s position within the lane, the angle of the vehicle within the lane, the distance to all the lane markings from three places in the vehicle and more on straight and even on curved roads!
With outstanding test tools like the RT-Range we can bring Dr. Erik Coelingh of Volvo Cars Sweden’s vision of a future without fatal car crashes a step closer.
