SAFE-UP’s 2nd General Assembly: a recap
The SAFE-UP consortium participated in its second General Assembly (GA) last week (30th November-1st December), which had to be held virtually. Despite the natural limitations, the partners were able to engage in fruitful discussions, particularly during the two workshops on WP2 (FSCS - Future Safety-Critical Scenarios), and the demonstrators.
This news item aims to summarise the main non-confidential issues presented and discussed during the GA. Further information will be available in the upcoming deliverables and our first newsletter, to be released very soon. Sign up to the mailing list here so you don’t miss it.
Firstly, the preliminary investigations from analysing accident databases - within the scope of WP2 - were shared to the consortium. Interesting insights shared include how the weather can affect FSCS and which kinds of junctions in urban areas are more critical for different vulnerable road users (VRUs).
On Monday afternoon, developments within WP3 (Active safety systems for vehicle-VRU interaction) were presented. Several functionalities and features were addressed with the final goal of developing three active safety system prototypes also involving infrastructure. All in all, VRUs were necessarily at the centre of discussions during Monday’s session due to their high share of fatal accidents in European urban areas (58% according to ERSO 2018 – European Road Safety Observatory).
The WP4 team kicked-off the second day of the General Assembly, exploring passive safety systems, comprising two main elements:
Occupant monitoring system: seat and camera sensors that would allow the detection of occupants according to new seating positions and novel interior settings.
Restraint system adapted to new seating positions, considering the occupant position and characteristics information, adjusting the performance of the components (airbag firing times, airbag volume, belt pre-tensioning, etc.)
A dedicated Q&A session followed which focused on each of the 4 demonstrators. This allowed us to confirm other relevant projects to engage with (e.g. Prospect, PEARS, Safe Rider), as well as SotA studies and publications that partners could share.
In the scope of WP6, partners UNIFI and CERTH explained how they are planning to develop training materials targeting different target audiences (including citizens) to create awareness of future traffic scenarios. An interesting remark was to focus on learning outcomes (behaviours, attitudes) instead of learning objectives, since that is how more accurate results are achieved.
Finally, WP7 also held an interactive session in the afternoon focused on reviewing and monitoring dissemination efforts and targets. The consortium confirmed the ambition to release multiple publications in relevant journals during the second half of 2021 (including Safety Science and EJTDS, etc). Also, as a result of this session, we have now drafted a calendar for content planning, ensuring regular website updates, so stay tuned for more very soon!
