Road Departure Protection
Avoiding roadway departure crashes, which currently are not completely covered by today’s lateral guidance Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), is the motivation behind developing a system for road departure protection. Road Departure Protection systems expand today’s lateral ADAS by active road keeping in emergency situations, before reaching the physical limits of vehicle dynamics.
The base system, which uses a forward looking mono camera to detect roadway boundaries, monitors the driver’s steering angle and vehicle path through existing Electronic Stability Control (ESC) sensors and also uses chassis motion sensors to identify if the vehicle is crossing the road boundary. It then uses the existing ESC system to apply the individual wheel brakes to automatically steer the vehicle back on the road while simultaneously warning the driver and reducing the speed of the vehicle for safety reasons. This active intervention is signaled when the vehicle senses it is departing the road. The system’s performance is enhanced by road edge rumble strips, creating an opportunity for a combined vehicle plus infrastructure solution with high effectiveness. The system is designed with a driver intention recognition feature in the event that the driver does intend to leave the roadway for any reason.