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Mitigating Vulnerable Road Users Occlusion Risk Via Collective Perception: An Empirical Analysis

Vincent Albert Wolff, Edmir Xhoxhi

TL;DR

The paper tackles occlusion-induced VRU safety risks in urban driving by defining a formal occlusion risk metric and Maximum Tracking Loss (MTL), and by evaluating how Collective Perception Service (CPS) via Day 2 V2X can mitigate these risks. It introduces a risk framework using vehicle safety-critical areas and VRU zones, implements a per-frame occlusion computation, and quantifies MTL across CPS penetration scenarios on real-world inD data from two German intersections. The study finds that a 25% CPS market penetration substantially reduces occlusion risk (roughly 40% in the tested scenarios) and that 100% penetration can nearly eliminate tracking losses, highlighting CPS as a practical safety enhancement for VRUs. These results provide concrete metrics and empirical evidence to guide deployment strategies of CPS and inform future work on more extensive scenario coverage and realistic communication models.

Abstract

Recent reports from the World Health Organization highlight that Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) have been involved in over half of the road fatalities in recent years, with occlusion risk - a scenario where VRUs are hidden from drivers' view by obstacles like parked vehicles - being a critical contributing factor. To address this, we present a novel algorithm that quantifies occlusion risk based on the dynamics of both vehicles and VRUs. This algorithm has undergone testing and evaluation using a real-world dataset from German intersections. Additionally, we introduce the concept of Maximum Tracking Loss (MTL), which measures the longest consecutive duration a VRU remains untracked by any vehicle in a given scenario. Our study extends to examining the role of the Collective Perception Service (CPS) in VRU safety. CPS enhances safety by enabling vehicles to share sensor information, thereby potentially reducing occlusion risks. Our analysis reveals that a 25% market penetration of CPS-equipped vehicles can substantially diminish occlusion risks and significantly curtail MTL. These findings demonstrate how various scenarios pose different levels of risk to VRUs and how the deployment of Collective Perception can markedly improve their safety. Furthermore, they underline the efficacy of our proposed metrics to capture occlusion risk as a safety factor.

Mitigating Vulnerable Road Users Occlusion Risk Via Collective Perception: An Empirical Analysis

TL;DR

The paper tackles occlusion-induced VRU safety risks in urban driving by defining a formal occlusion risk metric and Maximum Tracking Loss (MTL), and by evaluating how Collective Perception Service (CPS) via Day 2 V2X can mitigate these risks. It introduces a risk framework using vehicle safety-critical areas and VRU zones, implements a per-frame occlusion computation, and quantifies MTL across CPS penetration scenarios on real-world inD data from two German intersections. The study finds that a 25% CPS market penetration substantially reduces occlusion risk (roughly 40% in the tested scenarios) and that 100% penetration can nearly eliminate tracking losses, highlighting CPS as a practical safety enhancement for VRUs. These results provide concrete metrics and empirical evidence to guide deployment strategies of CPS and inform future work on more extensive scenario coverage and realistic communication models.

Abstract

Recent reports from the World Health Organization highlight that Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) have been involved in over half of the road fatalities in recent years, with occlusion risk - a scenario where VRUs are hidden from drivers' view by obstacles like parked vehicles - being a critical contributing factor. To address this, we present a novel algorithm that quantifies occlusion risk based on the dynamics of both vehicles and VRUs. This algorithm has undergone testing and evaluation using a real-world dataset from German intersections. Additionally, we introduce the concept of Maximum Tracking Loss (MTL), which measures the longest consecutive duration a VRU remains untracked by any vehicle in a given scenario. Our study extends to examining the role of the Collective Perception Service (CPS) in VRU safety. CPS enhances safety by enabling vehicles to share sensor information, thereby potentially reducing occlusion risks. Our analysis reveals that a 25% market penetration of CPS-equipped vehicles can substantially diminish occlusion risks and significantly curtail MTL. These findings demonstrate how various scenarios pose different levels of risk to VRUs and how the deployment of Collective Perception can markedly improve their safety. Furthermore, they underline the efficacy of our proposed metrics to capture occlusion risk as a safety factor.
Paper Structure (9 sections, 2 equations, 4 figures, 1 algorithm)

This paper contains 9 sections, 2 equations, 4 figures, 1 algorithm.

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. RELATED WORK
  3. Risk Definition
  4. Safety Critical Area
  5. Occlusion Risk
  6. Maximum tracking loss
  7. Scenarios and Simulation Framework
  8. Results
  9. Conclusions and Discussions

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: Definition of the safety critical area of a vehicle with relation to the VRUs
  • Figure 2: Schematic views of the crossroads at Frankenburg and Neukoellener Street in Aachen, Germany. Identified as scenario 1 and scenario 2 respectively.
  • Figure 3: VRU occlusion risk depending on penetration rate.
  • Figure 4: VRU tracking loss depending on penetration rate.