Conti proposes low grip prediction system

ERJ staff report (DS)

Regensburg, Germany -- Automotive suppliers including Continental AG are bringing together a range of sensor technologies to create a low-grip prediction and warning system for cars. It was developed within the “Friction” project as part of the 6th Framework Programme, co-funded by the European Commission.

Because even the best active safety systems cannot cheat the laws of physics, the joint research project has developed a new approach to sensor fusion. This new system will give the driver an advance warning about low grip.

The new sensor fusion approach uses data from vehicle dynamics sensors and interprets them together with information that comes from additional environmental and tyre sensors. The basic idea is to inform the driver as soon as he or she gets too close to the limits of friction between tyre and road.

For that purpose the system estimates the required friction (friction used) for a particular driving manoeuvre, estimates the maximum available friction (friction potential) and calculates the difference. While this sounds easy, integrating the many vehicle and environmental sensor signals and achieving a reliable decision-making mechanism is in fact quite complex.

Intelligent tyre sensors, which are integrated into the tyres, deliver information about the current tyre distortion of the rolling tyre. The system warns against early stages of aquaplaning.

In addition a range of sensors attempt to analyse the environmental conditions a few metres ahead of the vehicle.

• An optical sensor measures changes in the amount of light that is reflected by the road surface directly in front of the front wheel (0.4 to 1.5 meters ahead).
• A polarisation camera detects differences in vertical and horizontal polarisation caused by road surface conditions between 5 and 20 meters in front of the vehicle.
• Finally, a laser scanner checks the weather conditions by detecting objects such as snow flakes or rain drops within a range of 50 to 100 meters ahead of the vehicle.
• The road surface temperature is measured by a thermometer.
• An air thermometer measures the ambient temperature.

By computing the data from the environmental sensors and checking their plausibility against the thermometer readings, the system can detect the road conditions and thus potential threats to friction.

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Press release from Continental

Home page of Project Friction from EU