The Soft Bicycle 360™ mimics the appearance and behaviour of an actual cyclist and is used to test vehicle active safety systems safely in controlled environments. Its design focuses on realism and minimising damage to vehicles being tested in the event of an impact. Recognised as a real bicycle by sensing technologies including camera, radar, and lidar, it is also compact, lightweight, and robust.
“As the number of cyclist test scenarios grow and become increasingly more complex, we have seen a demand for a next-generation ADAS target,” said Nate Kuhl, Product Development Engineer at DRI. “As an independent testing provider conducting ADAS tests for manufacturers every day, we know that even relatively minor damage to a test vehicle, such as knocking a sensor out of alignment, can cause severe delays to test programmes. Target pliability, durability and testing efficiency are absolutely critical for test engineers and we have designed the Soft Bicycle 360 to be market-leading in these areas.”
"ADAS target design is often a delicate balance between ensuring it is compliant, in case of impact with the test vehicle, and also maximising stability in dynamic conditions to accurately represent a real cyclist," says Kuhl. "The Soft Bicycle 360 is softer, lighter, and more stable than existing options while meeting all the relevant industry ISO standards.”
The launch of the Soft Bicycle 360 surrogate target comes at a time when cyclist safety is under increasing scrutiny. According to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), cyclist fatalities as a percentage of all traffic fatalities have been growing since 2003 and when comparing data from 2007 to 2018, although total traffic fatalities decreased by 11%, cyclist fatalities increased by 22%. It is a similar situation in Europe too. The European Commission has reported that cyclists are the only road user group in the EU where the number of fatalities has not declined since 2010. As a result, consumer safety bodies such as Euro NCAP are expanding test requirements involving cyclists.