In safety research, pedestrians, cyclists and other road users who are not in a closed vehicle cabin are referred to as “vulnerable road users” (VRU). They are almost always exposed to an increased risk of injury in road accidents compared to motor vehicle occupants. The protection of these road users represents a particular challenge on the road to the complete prevention of fatal road accidents. With the transition to more sustainable mobility and the emergence of new vehicle types (e.g. e-scooters), this issue has recently become even more important.
Research projects
The safety of vulnerable road users is a long-standing focus of the AGU’s work and research. The AGU team has been involved in various leading research projects in this field. A selection of the most important projects:
- Dependence of ejection kinematics on vehicle front design: On behalf of a Swiss authority, AGU investigated how pedestrians who are hit by a vehicle continue to move after the collision. In many cases, the impact with the ground can cause greater damage than the primary impact with the vehicle.
- Knee and hip impact on various vehicle fronts: On behalf of a major vehicle manufacturer, AGU investigated the risk of injury to the knee and hip of pedestrians depending on the front design of the impacting vehicle. Crash tests were carried out with various surrogates and – as one of the first studies worldwide – simulations with FE human body models.
- Risk of injury in collisions between streetcars and pedestrians: On behalf of various Swiss transportation companies, the AGU investigated collisions between streetcars and pedestrians. The focus was on accident research and numerical modeling. This resulted in design recommendations for streetcar fronts.
- Horizon 2020 project VIRTUAL: Numerical modeling of various VRU vehicle collisions (e.g. pedestrian-tram, cyclist-car) using FE human models, implementation of a pre-simulation tool that estimates the probability of various collision configurations.
- Project on the safety of e-scooter riders: On behalf of the Zürich city police, all known accidents involving e-scooters were investigated in detail and conclusions were drawn on the causes of accidents and moments of danger.
The following videos show examples of simulation results from some of these projects.
Accident reconstruction
The AGU team is able to reconstruct pedestrian and cyclist accidents to a high level of detail. In addition to state-of-the-art survey methods, rigid-body simulations of the accident are usually carried out.
Evaluation of vehicle geometries using numerical modeling
According to current regulations (UNECE R127), the pedestrian protection of cars is tested by means of physical impactor tests, which enables reproducible tests, but does not adequately take into account the real kinematics of a pedestrian accident. In (non-mandatory) consumer tests on the other hand, numerical models are now increasingly being used to simulate pedestrian collisions and thus investigate the protective properties of a vehicle front end. The consumer test organization EuroNCAP has published a test protocol for such virtual pedestrian protection tests in 2021 (EuroNCAP Technical Bulletin TB 024).
We can carry out virtual tests according to TB 024 on AGU’s own computer infrastructure. Please contact us regarding required inputs and expected costs.
Contact persons: Dr. M. H. Muser, Dr. A. Keller