From Theory to Practice: Continental Successfully Concludes PRORETA 5 Research Cooperation

Over the past 20 years and in the course of a total of five PRORETA projects, a large number of researchers have continued their work in development at Continental and supported them in incorporating the research results into concrete solutions such as automated driving on the motorway or automatic emergency brake assist and bringing them into road traffic. Andree Hohm, PhD student at PRORETA 2 and now head of the innovation line "Driverless" in the Autonomous Mobility Business Area at Continental, says: "We conducted research at PRORETA in order to combine knowledge in industry with the competencies of university research and to find solutions for highly demanding problems together with young scientists. The most fascinating about this cooperation: With answers from research, we have laid the foundations for the actual application in the vehicle. What we developed in the first projects can now be seen in road traffic and ensures safety on our roads every day."

An insight into previous stages of exemplary cooperation between Continental and university research:

PRORETA 1 – Accident prevention through autonomous braking and evasion

The first PRORETA project (2002 to 2006) investigated how a vehicle can automatically detect imminent dangers in the form of stationary or retracting obstacles by means of environmental sensors and avert them by emergency braking or emergency evasion. An important research aspect, also for the following projects: Does the driver accept the system interventions?

PRORETA 2 – Prototype of an overtaking driver assistance system

In the second stage (2006 to 2009), the teams researched the prototypes of a driver assistance system that helps the driver prevent accidents during overtaking maneuvers on country roads. For this purpose, a system was developed that uses the sensor and vehicle dynamics data to determine and permanently calculate the position of one's own vehicle, the vehicle in front and the possibly oncoming vehicle in order to determine whether the free distance is sufficient for a safe overtaking maneuver.

PRORETA 3 – Driver assistance system for urban traffic

In the third PRORETA project (2011 to 2014), the implementation of a "safety corridor" as an integral vehicle safety concept was researched in order to increase active safety in urban and rural traffic. The challenges here, the high complexity of urban traffic and the question: What must be the nature of a safety system that detects an obstacle or a sudden danger and carries out active assistance measures such as steering and/or braking interventions so that it is accepted by the driver?

PRORETA 4 – Intelligent learning vehicle systems

In phase four of the PRORETA project (2015 to 2018), the focus was on intelligent learning vehicle systems in order to further increase driving safety and comfort. These assistance systems support the driver in difficult situations such as turning left, entering roundabouts or right-before-left intersections with individual and adaptive recommendations. The systems learn how the driver usually reacts in order to achieve maximum acceptance with targeted interventions.

PRORETA, an overview

PRORETA, named after the chief boatman warning of shoals on ancient Roman ships, pursued several goals: to promote and intensify the exchange of knowledge between industry and university research, to inspire young scientists and to involve them in finding solutions to application-oriented problems at an early stage. In several project stages, impressive results have been achieved in the last 20 years, which can be found on the roads today.