The risk of physical harm for vulnerable road users (VRUs) in road accidents is disproportionately high. Pedestrians and cyclists accounted for only about 6% of passenger traffic in 2020, but together they accounted for about one third of those killed or injured in road traffic accidents (despite the overall decline in accident numbers due to the pandemic). Since, in a broader sense, motor vehicle users such as motorcyclists and the like are also counted as VRUs (due to the lack of a protective cover), the figure was as high as almost 50%. The most frequent causes were violations or misbehaviour of drivers with regard to right-of-way rules (12%) as well as when turning, entering or exiting or turning (14%), while poor road conditions applied rather rarely (3%). In such situations, radio communication between encountering road users, e.g. at a blind junction, would in principle make a lot of sense in order to exchange the respective position and driving direction data and thus close the detection gaps that the vehicle drivers themselves or increasingly supported by sensors in the vehicle (e.g. ultrasound, video) cannot sufficiently cover.
The aim of our new MobiCell project, which is designed as a feasibility study, is to prototype V2X communication via mobile radio using the smartphones of VRUs in an independent V2X system. Concrete use cases are initially collision detection and evasive manoeuvre calculation in dangerous situations between VRUs (e.g. pedestrians and cyclists), for which the corresponding algorithms are being developed and made available via a cloud service. These will also be tested in practical trials at the end of the project. The new V2X system is based on the Cellular V2X standard and is to be integrated into a superordinate V2X system of vehicles and infrastructure in order to connect as many road users as possible.
MobiCell is funded by the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport and has a term of one year.
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23.06.2023
