Research institutes in Korea and the U.S. are joining hands to develop a pedestrian and micromobility collision mitigation system.

The Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI, President Shin Hee-dong) announced on the 29th that it will begin developing core technologies to prevent collisions between pedestrians and micromobilities in urban areas in cooperation with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in the United States.

As international standards for enhancing driver and pedestrian safety on the road are expected to be revised, especially in the United States and Europe, there is an increasing demand for the development of collision avoidance systems that comply with new vehicle standards.

Accordingly, KETI formed a consortium with major domestic and international companies, research institutes, and universities, including SwRI, Georgia Institute of Technology, SUM Co., Ltd., Korea Automotive Research Institute, Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd., E-Intelligence Co., Ltd., Infiniq Co., Ltd., Kookmin University, and Ajou University, and began to actively pursue the project, “Development of Urban Environment-based Pedestrian and Micromobility Collision Reduction Technology in Response to International Standards,” of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Automobile Industry Technology Development Project.

In the future, the consortium plans to develop an image-based 3D object recognition prediction and collision mitigation system that can quickly recognize and predict objects that suddenly appear in urban areas and prevent collisions with vehicles.

Dr. Lee Seon-young (PhD) of KETI Mobility Platform Research Center, who is in charge of this projectAccording to the Seok Research Institute, over the next four years, the consortium aims to raise the accuracy of image-based recognition and behavior prediction technology for vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and micro-mobility drivers who appear unexpectedly, to over 95%, the world's highest, and lead the revision of international standards in the autonomous driving field.

Until now, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) installed in domestic vehicles have been centered on preventing simple collisions with objects in front, so system malfunctions have occurred in response to objects such as pedestrians or micromobility vehicles that suddenly appear around the vehicle in complex urban environments.

KETI, the project management organization, plans to advance the existing ADAS system by promoting technological cooperation with SwRI in image-based 3D object recognition and prediction, thereby preventing road collisions by quickly predicting the sudden appearance of vulnerable road users.

Based on this, we plan to support the expansion of application in domestic ADAS vehicles and autonomous driving vehicles together with SUM Co., Ltd., which is leading the development of pedestrian/micromobility collision avoidance and mitigation system technology.

KETI President Shin Hee-dong said, “We deeply sympathize with the government’s need to strengthen safety policies to proactively respond to the rapidly increasing number of smartphone-using pedestrian and micro-mobility accidents,” adding, “KETI will spare no effort in expanding joint research with advanced domestic and overseas institutions to ensure that the safety of drivers and pedestrians is given top priority in the rapidly changing global future vehicle paradigm.”