FASR-zero 17' | Fourth Internetional Symposium on Future Active Safety Technology Toward zero traffic accidents

Keynote Session 1 September 19 (Tue.) 9:50- 10:40

“Demand and mental resource control for driving safety”
Drivers allocate their mental resource to perform driving tasks to meet the demand of current driving environment almost automatically. When the driving performance (e.g. attention allocation, understanding and predicting the situation and quality of driving operation) and the demand is balanced, a driver is considered to be able to manage driving situation to keep accident risk low level. When amount of mental resource is not sufficiently supplied compare to the demand, the risk of accident increases, e.g. a driver fails to perform quick evasive maneuver. Therefore, detecting increase of the demand relative to the resource and reducing the demand relative to the resource can be key issues for driving safety. Measuring the demand and the resource and how the driver can control the demand are discussed.

Motoyuki Akamatsu

1983:

Doctor of Engineering from Keio University

1986:

Researcher of Industrial Product Research Institute of AIST, working for Ergonomics and Human Factors.

2005:

Director of Human Science and Biomedical Engineering Research Institute of AIST

2010:

Director of Human Technology Research Institute of AIST

2014:

Prime Senior Researcher of Automotive Human Factors Research Center of AIST

Around 1990, started to work on HMI of ITS
From 1999, has been working on driving behavior both using driving simulator and on road (naturalistic driving studies)
From 2000, has worked as an expert of ISO/TC22/SC13/WG8 (HMI of ITS). Project Leader of Warning Integration that is published as TR12204 (ISO Technical Report) in 2012.
Founder of Automotive Human Factors Research Center of AIST in 2014
Editor in chief of Handbook of Automotive Human Factors published from JSAE in 2016.

Keynote Session 2September 20 (Wed.) 9:00- 9:50

“Road Condition Measurement and Suspension/Traction Control for Active Safety and Autonomous Driving”
The talk presents technologies of road condition measurement and suspension/traction control for active safety and autonomous driving developed at Virginia Tech. The road condition measurement and the subsequent suspension/traction control would be two essential components to stabilize the dynamic performance of the vehicle. These lead to active safety and autonomous driving. In road condition measurement, RGB cameras are used with a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to record road surface images with no motion blur. Computer vision algorithms then reconstruct the two-dimensional (2D) and the three-dimensional (3D) road surfaces. Finally road defects such as potholes and cracks, which disturb the vehicle stability and endanger vehicle safety, are automatically identified from the reconstructed 2D and 3D surfaces by using a multi-stage Bayesian technique. In suspension/traction control, an active optimal control scheme is deployed by developing a full vehicle dynamics model, incorporating the road condition measurement and designing an observer for estimating the vehicle dynamic state. The active optimal control scheme widens the admissible control region and is applicable unless road defects are severe. A Robot Operating System (ROS) based motion simulator allows the analysis of the developed technologies in virtual environments. Numerical and experimental studies have validated the efficacy of the developed technologies.

Tomonari Furukawa is Professor at Virginia Tech and Director of Computational Multiphysics Systems Laboratory and Mitchell Robotics Laboratory. He received the B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Waseda University, Japan, in 1990, the M.Eng. (Research) in Mechatronic Engineering from University of Sydney, Australia, in 1993 and Ph.D in Quantum Engineering and Systems Science from University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1996. He worked at the University of Tokyo (1995-2000), the University of Sydney (2000-2002), and the University of New South Wales (2002-2008) as faculty before joining Virginia Tech. His research work focuses on inverse analysis and optimization methods in robotics and experimental/computational mechanics where he currently has his particular interests in Bayesian estimation and control of autonomous vehicles and robots, structural health/condition monitoring, material characterization and multiphysics modeling and simulation. He works on not only theory but also real systems and has resultantly developed a world-class facility in his laboratories. He has published over 300 technical papers and won various research awards and paper awards including the prestigious Young Investigator Award from International Association for Computational Mechanics. He has also led teams in prestigious international robotics competitions including Virginia Tech’s Team VALOR in the DARPA Robotics Challenge in 2015 and Team VICTOR in MBZIRC in 2017.

Keynote Session 3September 20 (Wed.) 9:50- 10:40

“Car Cures for FAST-zero”
Driving simulators, instrumented vehicles and real-world sensors in the “internet of things” are revealing heretofore-unknown phenotypes and temporal patterns of driver behavior and performance. Physicians, engineers, psychology and computer science experts are discovering links between health-related functional declines and driver safety in context, in the real-world. This interdisciplinary translational research is informing systems (e.g., driver monitoring, collision warning, “smart” cars with differing levels of autonomy and interconnection) designed to improve mobility and safety in drivers with a range of disorders. This talk considers cars as agents for observing, detecting and responding to driver impairments in health, aging and medical disorders in the moment and over time; connected to sensors deployed at home, at work, and on the driver; and linked to clinical trials, electronic medical records and healthcare networks for improving patient/driver mobility, safety, agency, and quality of life.

Dr. Matt Rizzo is the Frances and Edgar Reynolds Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Sciences and Chief Physician for Neuroscience Clinical Programs (Neurology, Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, Psychology/ Neuropsychology, Pain, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). He is also Director of the Great Plains Clinical and Translational Research Network spanning Nebraska, the Dakotas and Kansas. As Professor of Neurology, Engineering, and Public Policy at the University of Iowa, he was founding Director of the Provost’s university-wide Aging Mind and Brain Initiative including research faculty across 5 colleges (Medicine, Engineering, Public Health, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Nursing). He was Vice-Chair for Translational Research in Neurology, Director of the Division of Neuroergonomics, and senior attending physician in the Memory Disorders Clinic. His research has been continuously funded by the NIH, other agencies, and academia–industry partnerships and have been an author on hundreds of articles and multiple books, with findings cited in many venues including the New York Times, Scientific American and the Washington Post. Dr. Rizzo helped develop a new generation of tools for naturalistic research at home and in the field and was first to deploy high-fidelity interactive driving simulation in university hospital settings. Relevant service includes the U.S. National Academy of Sciences/Board on Human–Systems Integration, U.S. FDA Panel for PNS and CNS Drugs, Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration Medical Advisory Committee (appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation). Dr. Rizzo has mentored many faculty as well as students at all levels including residents, postdoctoral scholars, PhD and MS candidates, and undergraduates, who have advanced to professional careers in academia and industry. He has served on many American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Committees, is the American Neurological Association’s liaison to the AAN Ethics, Law and Humanities Committee, and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Brain Coalition. He is committed to building effective systems and infrastructure to advance neuroscience research, education, patient care and outreach around the world.

Keynote Session 4September 21 (Thu.) 14:50- 15:40

“Making Mobility a great place to live”
The future of mobility is faced with many challenges: While more than 1.2 billion people spend approximately 50 minutes per day in their vehicles, they spend most of this time in traffic jams. The rising traffic level is causing increased emissions and air pollution and at the same time we are dealing meanwhile with nearly 1.3 million traffic fatalities, worldwide, annually.
Automated driving will provide an important contribution to making life easier for the driver and creating a more efficient overall traffic flow with fewer critical situations or accidents and thus bringing us closer to Continental's Vision ZERO.
While technology is rapidly making progress, Continental is convinced that only by working together can industry and society pave the way for automated and enjoyable mobility.

Wolfram has extensive and diverse experience in the automotive industry. Immediately after graduating, he joined Siemens in Regensburg, Germany in 1987, which later became Continental. He held various positions since then, including two assignments to the United States. He has been Senior Vice President of Continental’s Chassis & Safety Division Japan and Korea since July 2016 and has been appointed as President and CEO of Continental Japan since October 2016.