Self-driving bikes for more realistic development and testing of,in vehicle, systems for bike safety

Purpose and goal

The goal of this project is to develop self-driving bikes that will be used for validating active safety functions and testing algorithms for manual and self-driving vehicles. The bikes are intended to be used in tests together with vehicles and will be designed to behave as realistically as possible with the ability to move dynamically and roll around curves. The bikes must be self-balancing and be able to carry a dummy to make them to more closely resemble a human cyclist. This is not something available with test bikes available on the market today.

Expected results and effects

Today there are verification scenarios performed at AstaZero which include a bike using a dummy that pedals. However, the movement of the bike is only in one straight direction. Hence, having a self-driving bike that can maneuver realistically bike would be an added value to the test area allowing for more complex and challenging scenarios. Moreover, - For sensor tests a true bike with realistic movements is preferred. - elliminating the risks for a human cyclists in tests. - Possible insights of what makes bikes easy to be detected by vehicle sensor systems.

Planned approach and implementation

The work will be carried out in three iterations where the requirements on the bikes, the driving tests and the sensor tests will be updated. Chalmers and Mälardalen have already built the first prototypes, so already after a couple of months the first evaluation tests drives will be performed.