Set-up and real-traffic assessment of a data logger for vulnerable-road-user motion

Abstract

Accounting for over 1.2 million yearly deaths, traffic accidents are the ninth cause of death worldwide. In Europe, over 20 percent of the fatalities are vulnerable road users (VRU). The scope of this thesis work was to develop and test a wearable data logging device able to acquire VRU and environmental information in real-traffic. Such device may be employed in the future 1) to better understand VRU behavior, 2) as a logging tool for naturalistic study on pedestrians, and 3) as a basis for the development of active safety systems hosted on VRU portable devices. A first prototype of the device has been implemented in this project. Such prototype is able to log data from inertial measurement units (IMUs), GPS, force sensors and video camera in any configuration. Further, this device is capable of real-time processing and is able to provide visual, acoustic, and haptic feedback to the user. In addition, the device is wireless capable, opening for a number of cooperative active safety applications. The device was successfully tested in real traffic with a simple active safety application which warned the user when initiating walking close to a zebra crossing without looking left and right first