PROTECTIVE INNOVATIONS OF NEW EQUIPMENT FOR ENHANCED RIDER SAFETY

Project Information

PIONEERS

Grant agreement ID: 769054

DOI

10.3030/769054

Project closed

EC signature date 23 April 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 31 October 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 4 839 363,58

EU contribution

€ 4 725 613,58

Coordinated by

IDIADA AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY SA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PIONEERS (PROTECTIVE INNOVATIONS OF NEW EQUIPMENT FOR ENHANCED RIDER SAFETY)

Reporting period: 2019-11-01 to 2021-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The main pillars of PIONEERS are to achieve a deep understanding of the injuries sustained by PTW users, improve the performance of safety systems (Personal Protective Equipment, PPEs, and on-board systems), to develop better test and assessment methods and to increase the use rate of PPE.

The improved performance will be achieved by understanding the most safety-critical accident scenarios and impact conditions to reach a higher level of understanding on how the injuries occur and by developing more reliable, realistic and robust test methods. An increased use will be fulfilled by listening to the rider’s needs, improving the systems in terms of comfort (without compromising safety) and carrying out active awareness raising and dissemination actions.
The main goal of the PIONEERS project is to improve the safety of PTWs (both conventional and electric) by providing an integrated approach to rider protection considering on-rider (PPE) and on-board systems. Therefore, this project will investigate and assess the direct contribution to the reduction of fatalities and the severity of injuries, as well as the number of injured PTW users. The tools for that are developing new PPEs and on-board safety systems, as well as improving the validation and assessment methods and increasing the usage rate of such devices. Developing high-quality products (PPEs and on-board systems) from the European manufacturers and sensitizing the PTW users for the enhanced safety potential of those products will not only increase the safety level for PTW users but will also strengthen European competitiveness.

Finally, the main results of PIONEERS will be:
- Higher understanding of injuries suffered by the riders.
- Better testing methods enabling better performance assessment.
- Better products (PPEs and on-board systems) achieving an increased safety level for PTW users.

The conclusions of the final period are very positive, the simulations were useful to identify the most critical injuries suffered by the riders. Regarding PPEs, it has been proposed new testing methos to airbag jacket, helmet and pelvis among others. Also, an upgrade to the existing PPEs has been done with better materials and new designs to improve the comfort and the safety of the user. And last, but not least, related to the on-board safety, we developed also two different systems to mitigate lateral impact in case of accident with the motorbike.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In terms of management the work performed from the beginning of the project has been the definition of quality and risk procedures and a identification of the innovation management plan as well as the definition of the open data research pilot and all the ethics deliverables submitted.

Regarding the technical work, a road traffic accident scenarios and common injuries had been studied in order to perform a background as a first step of the PIONEERS project. Once the scenarios had been identified, in a second step a study about the rider's need had been performed.

In the last stage of the project most of the efforts were focused on test procedures for PPE and full vehicle in order to develop the new generation and adapt them to the new testing methods.

Regarding the exploitation and dissemination of all data from the project it has been created a web page and a Youtube channel to share all the results and achievements to our public interested in this field.
Also, a LinkedIn and a Twitter account was useful as an advertising channel to inform and disseminate about events to be done and share short relevant milestones from the project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The objectives achieved by the study of the accident scenarios and rider needs were useful to a better understanding of the safety issues PTW encounter on real roads. This work was focused on:

- Identifying the Key Accident Scenarios in Europe in terms of frequency and severity.
- Drawing an empathy map with PTW users to better understand the issues they encounter as users mainly related to use of PPEs.
- Define the current and future scenarios relevant for the development of safety measures.

During the first WP, the partners identified the most common PTW accident scenarios (from national accident databases) and injuries (from in-depth accident databases). The work done during this WP served as input for the next WPs.
The rider's needs were useful to identify the most critical aspects of the safety systems from the final user perspective.

Based on the detailed accident data collected a simulation was performed according mechanisms with Finite-Elements human body models. The analysis in the virtual environment allowed a deep understanding on how injuries can potentially be prevented. Also it was important to deriving injury criteria and concepts of pass/fail assessment for the future personal protective equipment tested.

During the last phase of the project the new era of test methods was developed to ensure a good quality of PPEs like airbag jackets, boots, helmet, pelvic protectors and on-board safety systems.

The project also focused on upgraded prototypes of PPEs to ensure more comfort and safety to the final user. Regarding the on-board systems, new ideas as lateral bars and airbags to mitigate lateral impacts at low speed were also developed.

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