Protocol and system design of a cooperative pedestrian safety system

In the research project Ko-TAG, which is part of the research initiative Ko-FAS, cooperative sensor technology is developed and its benefit for traffic safety applications is evaluated. As a result the new sensor concept shall provide essential input data for next generation driver assistant systems. A secondary radar principle based on communication signals enables localization of objects with simultaneous data transmission. It mainly concentrates on pedestrian and other vulnerable road user (VRU) detection, but also allows pre crash safety. This paper describes the elements of the system architecture, as well as the main characteristics of the communication protocols. These are designed to fulfil the functional requirements and to be compatible with existing protocols. With regard to the wireless link, the protocol is designed in such a way that it can be used as an extension to IEEE802.11p/WAVE protocol. With regard to the communication within the vehicle, an extension to the LocON-protocol is propped. The system is implemented in a hardware-software co-design approach.