Volvo Proposes Active Safety System Designed to Prevent Unintended
Lane Departure During SAE 2003 World Congress
TROY, Mich., Feb.
17 /PRNewswire/ -- What do cell phones, small children, lack of sleep
and daydreaming have in common? They all are things that distract drivers
from their main objective: to arrive safely at one's destination. Many
accidents are caused by drivers' lack of attention to the road ahead.
Before they realize it, they have left their intended lane and can't
regain control of their vehicle.
Volvo Car Corporation
will unveil an active safety system to prevent unintended lane departures
during the SAE 2003 World Congress, March 3-6, Cobo Center, Detroit,
Michigan, USA. The Volvo Lane Departure Module consists of a camera
with image processing software that detects current lane position. The
camera measures distances from the camera centerline to the left and
right lane markings.
If a driver mismanages
steering control, the torque of the steering wheel is designed to guide
the driver back to the appropriate steering wheel angle required to
come back in the lane. "Results from test drives indicate that,
despite its simplicity, the system is fully sufficient for helping drivers
stay in the lane without being perceived as an autopilot," says
Jochen Pohl, Volvo Car Corporation and an author of the SAE technical
paper.
A common existing
approach to mediating lane departure today is the use of "rumble
strips" - grooved pavement markings that alert the driver by causing
a loud noise and vibration when the vehicle leaves its lane. Rumble
strips only warn the driver after he has departed the lane. In many
situations, this kind of warning comes too late, and the driver is not
able to recover vehicle control.
The Volvo system
is designed to give the driver time to regain control of the vehicle
before an accident occurs. Development of a Haptic Intervention System
for Unintended Lane Departure (SAE paper 2003-01-0282), will take place
at 2:30 p.m., Monday, March 3, Room D2-15.
New to the SAE 2003
World Congress: DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors will hold corporate
engineering meetings at Cobo followed by VIP tours of the SAE 2003 exhibit
floor; a Technology Theater on the exhibit floor, home to executive
panel discussions throughout the week; and a re-categorized technical
session program.
SAE World Congress,
the world's largest showcase of automotive engineering technologies,
attracts attendees from more than 40 countries. This year's host company
is DaimlerChrysler.
To attend, visit
www.sae.org or call 1-877-SAE-CONG
(723-2664); outside the U.S. and Canada, call 1-724-772-4027.
Source: Society
of Automotive Engineers
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