The SIMUSAFE project recently received a lot of media coverage last month in Västerås, Sweden and beyond. The project meeting was discussed in a radio interview on the 13th of September. P4 Västmanland interviewed project partner, Mobyen Uddin Ahmed about the consortium meeting and the project. you can listen to it here:
http://p4dela.sverigesradio.se/?id=15019
The interview was also shared on Instagram (screenshot below).
There was also 3 different news articles regarding the project and MDH’s role in it. First can be read here: https://www.motormagasinet.se/article/view/677003/tester_for_smartare_aifordon_i_vasteras
Two other articles can be accessed here:
On the 17th and 18th of September, the SIMUSAFE Consortium met for its 5th General Meeting in Västerås, Sweden. The meeting was hosted by our partners at Mälardalen University (www.mdh.se).
The meeting focused on scheduling and partner preparation for the upcoming second and third cycles of our simulator research. The upcoming second research cycle will involve participants driving, riding, and walking through a more controlled environment–both on a test track as well as in simulators. Soon after the completion of the second cycle, study participants in 5 different countries will undertake research trials studying altered driving conditions (ADC) in simulated environments. Cycle 3 will look at ADCs such as alcohol use, diabetes medications, and depression.
Our partner, Aptiv, recently participated in Lesser Poland’s Festival of Innovation in Krakow. This event was open to the general public and there was a very good audience turnout.
Aptiv opened some of their laboratories and presented some of their ongoing projects—including the SIMUSAFE project. Approximately 90 people learned about the SIMUSAFE project and Aptiv’s role in developing new technology. The participants had the possibility to see eye-tracking glasses, simulated car motion data or output from driver’s state camera (mounted in the simulator cockpit) on car bench (all running on a computer which is meant to be mounted in the simusafe car). Also, they could have a look into scooter instrumentation, try driving in the car and walking in the pedestrian simulators. The project met with quite favorable and enthusiastic reception.
This was also a good opportunity to educate the public about road safety, user types. Many people were so interested they volunteered right there to participate in the SIMUSAFE project!
So enthusiastic, that it was difficult for Aptiv employees – group guides – to take each group to the next planned Laboratory.
Consortium partners EFA and AIPSS held the first in a series of simusafe workshops last month in Brussels. Entitled Autonomous vehicles and road safety: towards new training modules for drivers and driving instructors, almost 20 people attended this one day workshop. The workshop focus is described below:
The road mobility environment is continuously evolving and vehicle types are beginning to change as a result of increasing levels of automation: at the present vehicle SAE2 are already circulating and the SAE3 ones are close to be deployed; their interaction with conventional vehicles and other road users, particularly the vulnerable ones are an increasing concern. While the commonly accepted definition of Vulnerable Road Users includes pedestrians, cyclists, elders, impaired persons, etc., in the increasingly connected and mixed road transport system “vulnerability” may in the future be more related to the non-connected users and people unable to properly use the new technologies that will be embedded in the new generation of vehicles. There is therefore a risk of a new “automotive digital divide” with relevant impact of socio economic and road safety aspects. In order to face the above risks and prevent the envisaged digital barrier, new education and training schemes (for both trainers and novice drivers) should be agreed at European level and implemented in a way which match the speed of the increased implementation of automated driving functions. The SIMUSAFE project is dealing with new standards related to the introduction of autonomous vehicles and organizes a series of thematic workshops. EFA and AIPSS are proud to invite you to the first one.
MDH recently presented some of their simusafe research entitled Supervised Learning for Road Junctions Identification using IMU at the International Conference on Advances in Signal Processing and Artificial Intelligence (ASPAI’ 2019)’, http://www.aspai-conference.com/.
abstract: Events and interactions that take place in road junctions (i.e., roundabouts and intersections) are interesting to Naturalistic Driving Studies NDS analyzing safety and behavioral aspects of road users. This work employs machine learning techniques to develop a model that could automatically identify various road junctions encountered during ND using Inertial Measurement Unit IMU sensory data. The research is based on ND data of 16 volunteers part of SimuSafe project collected between May and August 2018. The supervised learning approach utilizes GPS signal to label road structures. The best performing model using Random Forest classifier achieved 90% precision on roundabout identification and recorded superior recall in comparison to using smart camera to spot roundabout signs.
We are pleased to present two papers from BrainSigns that were recently accepted for publication. Both used research undertaken for the SIMUSAFE project.
The partners gathered last week in Krakow, Poland for a three-day meeting hosted by APTIV. The focus was on finishing up cycle 1, the naturalistic phase, and preparing for cycles 2 and 3, the controlled and simulated phases. Below the partners break for lunch of pizza, a variety of salads, and (of course) desserts. Thank you APTIV for your impeccable hosting!
The European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA) have published a new position paper detailing the infrastructure improvements the two agencies feel would best help increase the safety of powered two-wheeler riders. PTW-riders are overly represented in road fatality rates given their actual low mode share. The joint position paper makes a strong case that improving the road infrastructure with simple and low cost fixes can make a positive difference in the PTW-rider safety. 
The SIMUSAFE project recognizes the vulnerability of PTW-riders and have included them in our work. PTW-riders are included in our study of road user behaviour towards building more realistic simulation environments.
The article and position paper are posted here.
The Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore’s Department of Psychology along with SIMUSAFE partners EFA and AIPSS are holding a workshop in Milano on the 26th of June. In it they will be discussing the Graduated Driver License System (GDLS) in the European context. The workshop will cover theoretical contributions and experience reports followed by an afternoon roundtable discussion. The workshop will facilitate dialog among researchers and different stakeholders around road safety. Attending this workshop will also be a delegate from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. We look forward on sharing some of their workshop experiences upon its completion. Workshop poster
Workshop Schedule_English
We are proud to have the creator and manufacturer of the Vienna Test System (VTS) join SIMUSAFE as a collaborator. Originally a pioneer of digital testing, SCHUHFRIED is now an acknowledged expert in this field. More than 13 million tests are administered using the Vienna Test System each year for neuropsychological and clinical purposes, but above all for the assessment of fitness to drive. Specifically, the agreement between SCHUHFRIED and SIMUSAFE will involve the DRIVESTA fitness-to-drive test which considers the measurement of driver skills such as reaction time, perception, attention, and risk perception.
The agreement between SIMUSAFE and SCHUHFRIED is also an interesting stimulus for research, both for participating in the project of different nations and cultures, as well as for the interest in different actors on the road. The objectives of SIMUSAFE include gathering data not only about vehicle drivers but also motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians. Analyzing and comparing the VTS performance of different users can be an interesting contribution to this project. Furthermore, the SIMUSAFE results may contribute towards further improving the Vienna Test which is another positive impact we can achieve together.
Visit their website for more information about the Vienna Test System and DRIVESTA.
In January, the SIMUSAFE partners met in France for our second meeting. There was substantial discussion surrounding preparing for Phase One of the project doing Naturalistic research with each of the modes.
ITCL and PROMETEO are now pre-selecting volunteers (car drivers, two-wheelers and pedestrian) for the naturalistic driving test in Spain. The volunteer must have an age between 18 and 24 OR between 50 and 70 years old who drive their vehicle (car, motorcycle or bicycle) or walk in urban areas at least three times a week. Applications can be made online on the website www.simusafe.es, where you can find more details about the project, the selection procedure and the simulation test. Further information can be requested by calling to 947 298 471 or emailing to simusafe@simusafe.es. Click here to download the pre-selection notice.
In June 2017 the SIMUSAFE consortium gathered for the project Kick Off Meeting held at the ITCL offices in Burgos, Spain.
Taking advantage of a sunny day to get some real vs sim validation cycle rides in.
If you’re interested in bike safety research and VR, reply or DM and you can join us. @simusafe @covUni_ftc #RoadSafety #recruitallthepeople
