TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Sensor FusionFRANKFURT, GERMANY (Sept. 18, 2007) - Delphi Corp. has announced that it will offer a line of active safety systems to complement its passive line of products. The new radar sensor was introduced this week at the International Auto Show. It can be used for smart or adaptive cruise control (with stop and go), pre-crash mitigation with autonomous brake assist, pedestrian detection and collision warning. The technology will become available in 2009. Importantly, the sensor will enable better performance at a lower cost, making it possible for vehicle manufacturers to offer collision mitigation technology across a larger percentage of their fleets. The next-generation radar has a wide field of view and provides simultaneous long- and medium-range capabilities in a single sensor. The radar allows OEMs to eliminate redundant sensors, achieving system cost-savings up to 50 percent over today's products. Using a proprietary waveform with innovative low-cost electronic scanning antenna/transceiver, enhanced target detection is achieved while increasing reliability with no moving parts. Sensor data fusion is Delphi's approach to combining multiple sensor technologies to achieve greater performance than available with an individual sensor. Delphi uses the complementary technologies of radar and vision to provide higher quality inputs into their threat assessment algorithms for collision mitigation and avoidance applications. Radar is used to detect object range and range rate, while vision systems confirms the classification of identified objects: vehicles, traffic signs, bridges, tunnels, etc. Fusing this data allows for an enhanced look at the road ahead, and allows greater performance of active safety systems. Delphi is also working on a single integrated complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera-based system that provides multiple safety enhancements at a lower cost than independent systems. Delphi's expertise and intellectual properties in vision system hardware and algorithms enable a single camera to provide multiple functions. In addition to enhancing performance of smart cruise control and pre-crash systems, the vision system can integrate additional features such as lane departure warning, intelligent head lamp control, rain and light sensing, active (near infrared, or IR) night vision, rain sensing, traffic sign recognition and pedestrian detection. By using certain vision algorithms developed by MobilEye N.V. (with its EyeQ vision processor) in the development of these vision and sensor fusion systems, Delphi has developed a scalable vision architecture that allows for a simple upgrade path to more complex features using the same single-camera system. In addition, a single camera also simplifies vehicle packaging, eliminating redundant cameras and other standalone products that compete for limited windshield space. Featured Delphi vision technologies include: *
Lane Departure Warning - The system tracks painted lane boundaries and helps alert the driver should the vehicle start to unintentionally drift out of its lane, helping to greatly reduce one of the largest causes of vehicle crashes. *
Rain Sensing - The same camera operates the rain sensing function, which activates wipers when moisture is detected on the windshield, with the addition of a small proprietary optical system. *
Intelligent Head Lamp Control - Using the single camera, intelligent head lamp control automatically activates the high-beams according to lighting and traffic conditions. It also automatically dims headlights for oncoming traffic and when approaching vehicles from the rear. *
Active Night Vision - Active night vision uses near-IR headlamps to illuminate the road scene ahead, and displays an enhanced image in the vehicle. This system provides high-beam visibility without blinding oncoming traffic. The system provides more natural-looking images to the driver than thermal vision systems, and allows non-thermal intense objects like trees and lane markers to be seen. *
Pedestrian Recognition - The camera also enables pedestrian detection, a system that detects and classifies pedestrians. It predicts potential pedestrian impact and activates countermeasures to mitigate injuries. Pedestrian protection technologies are gaining much attention in Europe and other countries with densely populated cities. *
Road Sign Recognition - Using the same camera to recognize and read road and traffic signs, the system can alert the driver to varying conditions ahead, such as speed limits and no-passing zones. "Delphi took on what seemed like an insurmountable task of converting very expensive, low-volume, military aerospace radar systems into less expensive, high-volume radar for passenger cars nearly two decades ago," says Jeff Owens, president of Delphi's Electronics & Safety division. "We are very pleased that our hard work is now paying off and providing benefits for consumers and automakers by making their vehicles safer."
(Source: Delphi Corp.) 
