News

The SAFER Board was very pleased with the proposals received for traffic-improving research in the recently concluded call for pre-studies; all four submitted ideas were granted funding:

• How we roll
• Generating Synthetic Scenarios to Test an Al-Enabled Traffic Measurement System
• Driver interaction with automated vehicles in real motorway traffic
• Think Tank Traffic Safety Footprint

“This pre-study call was extra interesting in the sense that the ideas were all very different in their character, which shows the breadth of opportunities in the programme”, says Magnus Granström, SAFER's director.

“One project is about setting up a new kind of simulator, one about building a digital model of an intersection and gather a consortium for a larger project application, one about writing a publication from a SAFER project and the last one is to start up a Think Tank with experts around a specific topic”, Magnus continues.

A realistic biking simulator will be built in How We Roll 
The overall purpose of the study, which will be carried out by researchers from VTI, If and Trivector, is to take an innovative approach to build a cycling simulator that puts the real-life cycling experience in focus. In many of the existing cycling simulators, the cycling experience is often compromised. Using tools that do not resemble the real situation means that the results risk to not reflect those obtained in a real situation. The aim is to make it possible to steer freely on a simulated cycle path. The bicycle simulator prototype will be prepared to be combined with VR or used in a test-track situation, capable of measuring cycling speed. A technical report of the development of the simulator, including a brief evaluation of its “bikeability”, will be produced in the study.

Digital model of an intersection
This pre-study will build on Viscando’s initial work on simulation-based testing of its AI- and stereovision-based infrastructure sensor OTUS3D that is used for collection of accurate traffic movement data. Three steps are planned:

• develop a digital model of an intersection where OTUS3D is already installed,
• create traffic scenarios and execute them in the digital model using the open-source simulator CARLA. Videos collected in CARLA will be processed by OTUS3D, and the extracted trajectories will be compared to the ground truth, 
• use evolutionary algorithms to modify parameters of the scenarios to push OTUS3D to its limits, i.e. digress the most from the ground truth trajectories.

In the pre-study, a digital model of an intersection will be built and parametrized scenario execution in CARLA will be carried out. Furthermore, a proof-of-concept of evolutionary test case generation will be implemented and a set of videos containing critical synthetic traffic scenarios will be developed. Finally, an academic publication will be written as well as a joint application for a Vinnova project. In this project, RISE, Lund University and Viscando are collaborating.

Valuable publication about Driver interaction with automated vehicles 
This study is about completing another important publication with results from the SAFER project L3Pilot, which was concluded in October 2021. The publication will be presented at the International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology (ICTTP) in Gothenburg on 23-25 August 2022. An extended version of the publication will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, for example, a special Issue to Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour Journal. The data collected in the L3Pilot project will contribute to make automated driving safe. Publishing and presenting the methodologies and the results from the project at a scientific conference is a strategic activity that will help SAFER partners to continue to be leading actors within one of SAFER’s core areas; systems for accident prevention and automated driving. The publication will be written by researchers from Chalmers and Volvo Cars.

Continuation of exploring Traffic Safety Footprint through a Think Tank
SAFER has identified traffic safety footprint as a future core research need, according to the recommendations from the UN-conference. There is a limited knowledge in each company on traffic safety footprint and therefore it is a competitive advantage for each organization to share and to support each other to identify the challenges to be able to report their traffic safety footprint in the future. In the Think Tank, partners will contribute with knowledge and competence within this area. 
The Think Tank output will be a list of research questions that need to be addressed by the community to enable organizations to identify their traffic safety footprint. A list of obstacles, both short-term and long-term, will also be delivered. The result will gather knowledge in all relevant areas to prepare for a larger project with the aim to create a reporting system. Project progress will be shared with SAFER partners with a possibility to learn from. Volvo group, Autoliv, Folksam, the Swedish Transport Administration and VTI are partners in this project. Other SAFER partners will be invited to join and contribute in the planned workshops.

Next SAFER-pre-study call
Do you have a traffic safety research idea that you would like to develop together with SAFER partners? We have an opportunity! Funding will proactively stimulate project generation with several SAFER partners involved to maximize the benefits of our multi-disciplinary platform and obtain a broad commitment, both between partners and within research areas. The funding is for getting started with strategic knowledge creation that can be leveraged e.g. by using the unique, new competence as a basis for national funding or an entry ticket to prestigious international collaborations. We also welcome proposals that are of a different nature, for instance for finalization of publications from a completed project or investigation of a new area. 

Simply put, projects that lead SAFER forward and contribute to the continued development of our joint collaboration platform. The time schedule for this calls is:

• April 2022: Call for pre-studies opens
• April 20, 2022: Research area day – dialogue about ideas (send a pitch/ summary: SAFER Pre-Studies Stage V Templates&Process - SAFER - Project Portal (webforum.com))
• Until May 08, 2022: Fill in the pre-study application and submit here: https://tinyurl.com/saferprestudy
• May 12, 2022: The Scientific Council (research area directors and part of the SAFER management team) evaluates and ranks all pre-study applications.
• May 25, 2022: The SAFER Board decides about funding. 
• End of May 2022: Decision Letters are sent out.
• Start reports and final reports are due one month after projects start resp. end date.

Welcome with your application!

LINK TO SAFER-PRE-STUDY PROGRAMME

https://tinyurl.com/saferprestudy