VIROLO++ Project Overview

Many research programs have been undertaken in Europe and abroad to understand the factors contributing to crashes. In particular, the MAIDS and RIDER projects allowed to characterize accidents situations (Penumaka et al., 2014), which paved the way to other projects such as SAFERIDER (Evangelos, 2010) for the development of ITS. 2BESAFE aimed to study the motorcyclists behavior and ergonomic factors contributing to motorcycle crashes (Ng et al.,2018). The French ANR/Predit SUMOTORI andDAMOTO collaborative projects proposed an automatic fall detection algorithm for early inflating of a wireless air-bag jacket. SIM2CO+ aimed at identifying the risky situations experienced by novice motorcyclists who have just passed their test, in order to improve pre-test training in France (ANR,2014).

The VIROLO++ Project is a French ANR project, proposed to emphasize on bend-taking maneuvers. The aim is to fill the knowledge gap on bend-taking practices for a group of experienced and novice riders, to understand how riders enter a bend, maintain control and exit a bend. This system is mainly intended to operate on highways, national and departmental roads and in adverse conditions. In particular, the goal of this project is to develop tools and methods suitable for the study of the riders’ behavior and for the understanding of the way they interact with their vehicle when negotiating a bend (Figure1.17).

26 Chapter 1. Road fatalities and ARAS for PTWV riding situation. The risks considered here is related to unsuitable approach speeds, leading to a possible loss of control or a collision with a third party. The risk functions to be synthesized will be mainly based on purely dynamic considerations of the lateral dynamics and the mobilized adhesion. However, the implementation of the road-risk assessment function requires the best possible knowledge of the various dynamic states of the motorcycle and the external effort.

WP5 develops application to training and safe bend-taking. This covers the development of products for industry based on the results of all previous WP, mainly targeting innovative training applications for safe bend-taking: off-line and on-line devices for the evaluation of motorbike paths, and new scenarios for the low-cost riding simulators. These new products will be evaluated by riding trainees and experienced riders.

WP6 deals mainly with project management. All partners will contribute to this work package, to define the dissemination strategy and its execution during the project.

1.7 Conclusions

Throughout this chapter, we have discussed the context and motivations of the thesis. In summary, Powered Two-Wheelers riders are the most vulnerable road users. The accident analysis studies have shown that reducing the number of road accidents requires designing and developing safety systems to ensure passengers safeness. Nevertheless, assistive systems for cars are well known and increasingly popular but for PTW riders the development of Advanced Rider Assistance Systems and On-Bike Information Systems have not progressed far enough yet. The lack of consideration of these users explains these alarming statistics. To overcome these problems, it is necessary to improve vehicles and road network infrastructure through the proposal of intelligent systems. Now and in many countries, the use of safety-enhancing assistive systems for passenger and commercial vehicles, including advanced driver assistance systems and In-Vehicle Information Systems are quite commonplace. Nevertheless, only a limited amount of the PTW equivalents systems have been developed so far. A better understanding of rider behavior would make it possible to sensitize experienced riders who show good practice, but also to set up new training and retraining measures, to improve the road design, to amend the highway code, and to identify areas for the design and/or assessment of driving assistance devices dedicated to PTWVs. Finally, knowledge of the interaction between riders and their PTWVs is critical for the tuning of riding simulators, which can then be used by a broader set of the rider population. The above analysis of safety gaps indicates several opportunities to advance the state of research on motorcycle safety and Intelligent Transportation Systems by addressing key gaps and needs. To help take action to address the identified gaps and challenges in research on ITS for motorcycle safety many recommended areas of research were identified to enhance ITS for motorcycle safety, include:

synthesizing ITS technology and implementation with the already successful technology of antilock braking systems (ABS) in motorcycles, rider-motorcycle interface, motorcycle safety data including preparations to take full advantage of big data moving forward, applied research and assessments of safety benefits; and the harmonization of ITS technologies and standards such as inter-operable connected vehicles.

This thesis fits into this context by proposing a contribution to the development of rider assistive systems for motorcyclists, also known as Advanced Rider Assistance Systems. During these three years of research, within the VIROLO++ project, we have placed so much emphasis on the development of realistic solutions and their validations. In this validation process, we used the BikeSim software and the experimental platforms of the laboratory. Therewith, to accomplish ARAS design, the main elements of the PTWV structure and the basic phenomena at the origin of its specific dynamic behavior are discussed. Indeed, to characterize the behavior of the two wheeled vehicles, it is important to understand the V - I - R (Vehicle - Infrastructure - Rider) system. These characteristics have to be considered in the synthesis of PTWV model, estimation and control problems. In the next chapter, we present a detailed kinematic and dynamics modeling of the motorcycle, taken into account various factors influencing this dynamic.

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Chapter 2