PRETORIA, South Africa, September 12, 2022 – At Ford’s Proving Ground in Australia, Ray, Rosie and Roberto are integral members of Ford’s security staff, serving to to develop the very newest in crash safety options and superior driver help techniques that allow house owners to drive with extra confidence on the street. This cutting-edge robotic trio are tasked with serving to Ford check driver help techniques, like pre-collision help with automated emergency braking (AEB), lane preserving aids, evasive steer help, reverse brake helpi and extra.
Each robotic performs an important half in superior driver help techniques testing; Rosie is a Guided Soft Target (GST) car, Ray is a Vulnerable Road User (VRU), and Roberto is an in-car driving robotic. The robots guarantee next-gen Ranger and Everest’s superior driver help techniques (ADAS)i can deal with a mess of eventualities involving different street customers, together with vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists.
“Having our three robots means we can now run the full gamut of ADASi scenarios, everything from nose-to-tail, offset, intersections, pedestrians, cyclists and more, in less time,” mentioned Chet Yakupitiyage, superior driver help techniques (ADAS) attribute engineer. “We can also run more tests on any given day or night and with more real-world accuracy than ever before.”
How the robotic trio made a distinction
Ford ADAS engineers used to depend on towed delicate targets to check and tune techniques like pre-collision help with AEB however driver error and even climate circumstances might trigger inconsistencies in checks and stretch out testing programmes. Ford’s three robots guarantee a broader vary of ADAS checks might be replicated with centimetre precision at day or evening.
Rosie and Ray robots have the means to be exactly synchronised with a check car, whether or not it’s being operated by a robotic driver (Roberto) or a human, permitting for advanced ADASi eventualities to be created.
When fitted with a full-sized delicate goal, Rosie (the GST robotic) carries the similar radar signature as an actual automotive. This permits the ADAS staff to carry out quite a lot of real-world checks to make sure techniques like pre-collision help with automated emergency brakingi work appropriately.
To guarantee correct coordination with Rosie and Ray, Ford’s in-car driving robotic Roberto, outfitted with subtle movement management applied sciences, is fitted to the check car to regulate the steering, brakes, and accelerator. For extra security on-site, an engineer stays in the driver’s seat to take management of the check car if wanted, whereas one other engineer retains a watchful eye on both Ray or Rosie and might take guide management if required.
Similarly, Ray, the Vulnerable Road User with Launch Pad, permits the staff to check for quite a lot of pedestrian, kids and bike owner eventualities at each day and evening.
“With Ray we can simulate a child popping out from in front of a parked car, a pedestrian stepping out in front of a vehicle at night, or a cyclist riding across the road in front of the vehicle,” mentioned Yakupitiyage.
“Our robots are the similar as these utilized by my colleagues in different markets, which suggests we will share knowledge, eventualities and carry out checks in Australia to help groups in Europe and America to make sure our superior driver help techniques meet Ford’s personal stringent check standards but additionally world NCAP protocols.
“Ray, Rosie and Roberto not only ensure more accurate and consistent results when testing these complex advanced driver assist systemsi but they also allow us to get much closer to real-world scenarios than ever before, and that should give buyers confidence that the advanced driver assist systems on next-gen Ranger and Everest have been designed to handle almost anything they’ll encounter on the road,” mentioned Yakupitiyage.
Total dedication to security
From bodily checks at Ford crash labs round the globe, to present process hundreds of hours of digital crash testing, and having their superior driver help techniques examined by robots, Ford’s passive security and superior driver help techniques groups labored tirelessly to develop the safest next-gen Ford Ranger and Everest.
At the core of the next-gen Ranger and Everest is an immensely sturdy physique that makes use of high-strength supplies to create a ‘safety cell’ to guard occupants, mentioned Franco Moras, car security supervisor, Ford Australia. The placement of high-strength steels in the A-pillar, B-pillar, and C-pillar, in addition to door sills, are to make sure that crash masses are directed away from occupants.
To obtain excessive ranges of security and meet Ford’s demanding in-house necessities, Ford engineers used each analytical digital testing and bodily testing.
More than 150 computer-aided engineering (CAE) next-gen Everest and Ranger fashions have been constructed and analysed, every taking a look at crash eventualities as various as frontal offset, rear impression, and facet impacts. Also, dozens of occupant impression eventualities have been carried out to make sure the safety of a variety of occupant statures (adults and kids), in addition to low-speed crashes, the form you may expertise in a carpark, to find out the repairability of minor elements.
“Before we had built a single physical prototype, we tested next-gen Ranger and Everest to destruction, virtually. Doing this allowed us to make fast adjustments and improvements to vehicle architecture which led to the development of a much safer vehicle,” mentioned Moras.
Out in the actual world, each next-gen vehicles underwent dozens of real-world crash checks, starting from purchasing trolley impacts to high-speed simulated dummy kangaroo and car-to-car impacts. In all, Ford engineers carried out greater than 100 full car crash checks, mixed with a whole lot of bodily sled checks that simulate a full car with occupants. This was supported by a whole lot of sub-system and element stage testing.
“We’ve packed some of the newest driver assist features into a reinforced occupant cell to ensure you and your passengers are always safe,” mentioned Moras.
Thanks to Ford’s strict security testing regime, and the onerous work of all its security groups, together with Ray, Rosie and Roberto, the next-gen Ranger and Everest have acquired a five-star ranking from ANCAP.
‘Help me drive’ options
“Perhaps one in all the most welcomed new options on the next-gen Ford Ranger and Everest for patrons who tow is the enhanced blind spot data system (BLIS), which now consists of trailer protectioniii, mentioned Steffen Herrmann, ADAS supervisor, Ford Australia.
BLIS not solely supplies protection for the Ranger and Everest but additionally for a standard trailer measuring as much as 2.4 metres large and as much as 10 metres lengthy. Depending on the variant and market, each next-gen Ranger and Everest additionally provide a trailer guidelines and light-weight examine too.
Next-gen Ranger and Everest’s pre-collision helpi has been enhanced to cowl each pedestrians and cyclists and presents emergency braking help at intersectionsii due to a brand new, wider-view digicam.
“These advanced driver assist systems should be seen as a, ‘helps me drive’ feature for customers,” mentioned Herrmann. “There’s a real customer benefit and we’re proud of the enhancements.”
Five-star efficiency
The next-gen Ford Ranger and Everest have turn into the automaker’s newest fashions to be awarded a five-star ranking from ANCAP in Australia and New Zealandiv, persevering with the five-star ranking efficiency of the previous-generation Ranger and Everest.
Both the next-gen Ranger and Everest achieved sturdy scores in grownup occupant safety for frontal offset (MPDB), facet impression and far-side impression checks. And each vehicles have been awarded most (‘good’) scores for the stage of kid occupant safety in frontal offset and facet impression collisions.
ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Carla Hoorweg mentioned, “a five-star security ranking isn’t a simple achievement, yet it’s significantly necessary when contemplating the very broad vary of makes use of the Ranger and Everest will probably be bought for”.
Everest and Ranger’s superior driver help techniques, together with pre-collision help with automated emergency brakingi, lane preserving system with the means to detect unmarked street edges, whereas the new wide-view digicam helps with pedestrian detection, and oncoming vehicles in ‘turning-across-path’ intersection eventualities, all scored extremely in ANCAP checks.
“This is good news for fleets, families and tradies, as well as recreational consumers – everyone who uses these models for work and play,” mentioned Hoorweg.
ANCAP’s present testing protocols are the strictest in the organisation’s historical past, for instance, the velocity of the facet impression crash check has been elevated to 60km/h (from 50km/h) whereas the weight of the check trolley elevated to 1400kg (up from 1300kg). Active security checks have expanded (in comparison with 2018) making it more durable to realize a five-star ranking and now embrace the testing of AEB efficiency at junctions between vehicles and passengers. Ranger and Everest’s new forward-facing wide-view digicam have been a key consider serving to the vehicles rating extremely in ANCAP’s lively security testing.
“Achieving a five-star ANCAP safety rating on next-gen Ranger and Everest is great news. We know how important safety is to vehicle buyers, and we want customers to have total faith that their Ranger or Everest is watching out for them,” mentioned Ian Foston, chief platform engineer, Ford Ranger and Everest.
“That’s why, as part of the development of next-gen Ranger and Everest, we carried out extensive crash testing in Australia, North America and Europe, covering regulatory, public domain requirements (such as NCAPs), as well as stringent corporate requirements. This testing often goes above government mandated requirements to ensure Ranger and Everest’s safety is robust,” mentioned Foston.
“All of our safety teams, plus of course Ray, Rosie and Roberto, worked tirelessly to ensure driver assist features were cutting edge and up to the standard expected by a modern vehicle buyer,” concluded Foston.
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