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TUAT Associate Professor Pongsathorn wins the "Asahara Science Award" at the 64th Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (JSAE)

2014.05.23

The 64th Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan Awarding Ceremony for the 2014 JSAE Annual Congress (Spring) was held on May 22, 2014 (Thu.) at Pacifico Yokohama and TUAT Associate Professor Pongsathorn Raksincharoensak, from the Smart Mobility Research Center (SMRC) of the Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, won the Asahara Science Award.

This Award is presented each year to the researcher under the age of 37 who presents the highest standard of research relating to automotive engineering, and who is considered to have excellent prospects within the field.

The award-winning research theme and outline is as follows:

“Hazard-anticipatory braking assistance system for preventing pedestrian collisions in unsignalized intersections”
The number of pedestrian accidents in unsignalized intersections is high and reduction measures are deeply expected. Since the current collision prevention system is based on the detection of obstacles, intersections with poor visibility and sudden appearance of pedestrians may lead to unavoidable collisions. On the other hand, the experienced driver is capable of predicting the risks, even under poor visibility driving conditions.
Prof. Pongsathorn’s research focuses on the expert driver behavior of predicting hazards by analyzing their driving pattern in unsignalized intersections and modeling a reference velocity profile based on a projection of the pedestrian location before the intersection. In addition, by applying this model to the autonomous braking system it presented through simulations the possibility of preventing pedestrian collisions. This research contributes to the reduction of accidents and its successful results are highly expected in the future.