Citation

Jung HG, Kwak BM, Shim JS, Yoon PJ, Kim J. IEEE Trans. Intel. Transp. Syst. 2008; 9(4): 678-687.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers))

DOI

10.1109/TITS.2008.2006789

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of vehicle front height lowering operation of precrash dipping nose (PCDN) on pedestrians. Although PCDN was developed for vehicle-vehicle side crashes, there is a possibility that the range sensor for crash detection will fail to distinguish a group of pedestrians from a side-faced vehicle. For simulation-based investigation, a vehicle model, an air spring with PCDN actuator, a pedestrian, and active hood system (AHS) were modeled. Two vehicle models were made for a sedan and a sport utility vehicle (SUV), respectively. In all crash situations (frontal crash without AHS, frontal crash with AHS, and side crash without AHS), a falsely operated PCDN is expected to cause worse pedestrian injury. As a conclusion, we insist that PCDN should incorporate a pedestrian-recognition capability into its crash detection system to reduce the improper activation of its actuator. In addition, as AHS showed a good performance even in improper activation, we propose a complementary method that activates AHS when PCDN is activated. It is noteworthy that the increasing importance of pedestrian protection seems to enforce even a system developed for vehicle-vehicle crashes to be investigated from the perspective of pedestrian safety.