Investigating the feasibility of motorcycle autonomous emergency braking (MAEB): Design criteria for new experiments to field test automatic braking

Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) was proved to be an effective and reliable technology in reducing serious consequences of road vehicles crashes. However, the feasibility in terms of end-users' acceptability for the AEB for motorcycles (MAEB) still has to be evaluated. So far, only Automatic Braking (AB) activations in straight-line motion and decelerations up to 2 m/s(2) were tested with common riders. This paper presents a procedure which provides comprehensive support for the design of new experiments to further investigate the feasibility of MAEB among end-users. Additionally, this method can be used as a reference for designing tests for other advanced rider assistance systems. A comprehensive literature review was carried out to investigate previous findings related to MAEB. After that, a series of pilot tests using an automatic braking device on an instrumented motorcycle were performed. The specifications for new AB experiments were defined (in terms of test conditions, participants requirements, safety measures, test vehicles and instrumentation). A test protocol was defined to test the system in different riding conditions and with different AB working parameters. A proposal for the data analysis was presented. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.