ARTRAC aims to develop an active safety system to protect vulnerable road users (VRUs) from vehicles inmotion, that is economically viable in the volume vehicle market. The safety system will consist of both actuatorsfor controlling vehicle driving dynamics and the perception component for the vehicle’s surroundings. It will betested on two types of vehicle that pose the biggest hazard to VRUs in urban settings, namely cars and lightdelivery goods vehicles.The environmental sensing is to be based on a single automotive 24 GHz narrowband radar sensor. This sensor offers the potential to overcome the hitherto price barrier that has prevented VRU protection systems fromentering widespread use.

To meet the challenging technical requirements for extremely short measurement time, reliable target detection, ego motion and road condition estimation that have to be met, a new transmit/receiveantenna and multi-channel receiver will be developed. 

The consortium comprises 7 partners well experienced in this sector and worldwide leaders in automotiveindustry and research: 2 car manufacturers (Volkswagen, Fiat through C.R.F.), 2 research organisations (VTT,CTAG), 2 universities (TUHH, UPT) and one SME specialised in car sensors (SMS).