Full surname: Increasing safety for cyclists through vehicle-to-bike communication with 5G (Car2Bike.5G)

Brief description

Driving assistance systems for vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, etc.) that use sensors to detect their surroundings are state of the art. There are now also approaches to include other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists (including pedelecs, e-bikes, etc.) in the safety concept. In addition to the detection of dangerous situations in the vicinity of a cyclist by means of sensor fusion (e.g. radar, LIDAR, camera), dangerous situations can also be predicted in advance by means of C2X/V2X communication. However, this requires the actuators and sensors of the vehicle and the pedelec to send bidirectional data in real time that can be used for hazard analysis. 5G communication technology supports this real-time communication, which raises the research question of the extent to which this communication technology can be used in C2X/V2X communication in the scenario of assistance systems for cyclists.

The driver assistance system of the "Car2Bike.5G" project takes into account the results and findings of the "FahrRad" project. The information and data obtained through the fusion of radar and camera sensors will continue to be processed by the driver assistance system and displayed to the cyclist on a mobile device in a user-friendly manner.

The project is funded as part of the 5G.NRW funding competition, financed by funds from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Initial situation

• Cycling should be supported in order to promote mobility and health and improve the CO2 balance.
• Safety can be improved through infrastructure, such as
  • better cycle paths,
  • Conversion of intersections (traffic circles, safety islands for larger turning radii for cars/trucks), different traffic light circuits,
  • Assistance systems as known from cars (radar, camera, ...) for pedelec/e-bike à completed project "FahrRad".

Objectives

• Definition of scenarios in which vehicle-to-bike communication,
• based on Cellular V2X (C-V2X) with 5G, improves the safety of cyclists.
• Evaluation of ranges and latency for a direct connection (sidelink) between road users and network-based communication.
• Evaluation of the approaches using simulation and measurements:
  • with onboard units (OBUs) for the direct sidelink connection (at Hochschule Niederrhein),
  • in the campus network for network-based communication (at Triopt),
  • in Vodafone's 5G test lab in Aldenhoven.
• Development of the user interface on the bicycle (app as well as visual, haptic and acoustic warnings).