Simulation of Thermopile JR-Sensorsfor Automotive SafetyApplications

Thegrowingdemandforactive safety systems implies alsotherequirement fornewandsuitable evaluation andtestprocesses forsuchsystems. However, theevaluation of thesesystems isinmostcasesa nontrivial, timeconsuming andexpensive task. Especially, foractive pedestrian protection systems, whicharebasedoninfrared detection ofhumans. Inthispaperwe present a simulation ofThermopile sensors toevaluate theperformance ofaninfrared basedpedestrian detection system. By meansofthesimulation tool, anytest scenario canbe generated andthesimulation provides the sensordatatothegenerated scenario. Thesimulated sensor output depends ontheobjects placed inthevirtual environment andthebackground radiation. Considering thephysical sensor dimensions andPlanck's radiation law, anapproximate imageof thereality canbeachieved. Thereby, itispossible tosimulate pedestrian crashtests, whichsavesextensive timeoftesting and enables afast optimization andadaption ofthesystem. I.INTRODUCTION Pedestrian protection isespecially inEurope anuptodate issue since theEuropean carmanufacturers havecommitted themselves tointroduce first pedestrian protection systems at theendof2005.Thisleads toagrowing demandforboth passive andactive pedestrian protection systems. Whilefirst systems mitigate injuries bychanging thefront design of thecarsorapplying other mechanical changes, thelatter are abletodetect andlocalize pedestrians andtrigger suitable protection systems. However, active safety systems canonly bedeployed innewcarsifthey haveatolerable detection and false alarm rate. Thisleads tothefact that these systems need elaborate testing andevaluation. However, theevaluation of these systems isanontrivial, timeconsuming andexpensive task. Especially, forinfrared based active pedestrian protection systems itisdifficult tosetupcrashscenarios, since the sensors onlydetect heatemitting objects. Inthis article asimulation tool ispresented whichisable to create test(crash) scenarios andoutputs theequivalent sensor