Design and experimental study of an ultrasonic sensor system for lateral collision avoidance at low speeds

In this study, we design and implement an ultrasonic sensor system for lateral collision avoidance of vehicles at low speeds. The developed sensor system is useful for detecting vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians that pass by the lateral side of a vehicle. The system can be adopted to enhance the rear-view mirrors of present vehicles, which have blind spots on the lateral sides. Ultrasonic sensors, which have been widely used on cars for rear object detection during parking, are developed for lateral object detection at low speeds. Detailed experimental studies are presented in this paper. Experimental results show that the proposed system can detect a vehicle at speeds up to 40km/hr with a maximum range of 6 meters. Moreover, the influence of wind on the measurement is also investigated. The developed sensor system gives satisfactory results for a wind speed up to 35km/hr.