A Novel Multi-Sensor Crash Safety System Targeting Heavy Duty Vehicle Blind Spots

Roughly 500,000 traffic accidents involving Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDVs) occur yearly in the United States. The primary cause for these accidents stems from the presence of substantial blind spots, regions around the HDV not visible to the driver. Existing solutions to blind spots are the use of camera monitors, sensors, or additional mirrors, but these options have limited success when working in varying weather conditions or different road types. This article proposes a blind spot safety protection system targeting heavy duty vehicle blind spots based on multi-sensor information fusion. The system evaluates the location of pedestrians and other vehicles near the heavy duty vehicle through ultrasonic, touch, and vision sensors. The driver is alerted of potential dangers, such as a nearby pedestrian, through the monitor and a wristband. In the scenario of a crash, pedestrians, external vehicles, and the heavy duty vehicle itself are protected by external airbags. This paper investigates optimal camera threshold settings under different light conditions, and evaluates the field of vision of the camera monitor subsystem. The experimental results indicate that the designed system can protect a blind spot area of approximately 80.3m
²
. The use of multiple sensors can effectively improve the robustness of safety detection. The designed system has extraordinary significance for protecting pedestrian, vehicle, and HDV safety.