Kinetic and Kinematic Features of Pedestrian Avoidance Behavior in Motor Vehicle Conflicts

Abstract

The active behaviors of pedestrians, such as avoidance motions, affect the resultant injury risk in vehicle–pedestrian collisions. However, the biomechanical features of these behaviors remain unquantified, leading to a gap in the development of biofidelic research tools and tailored protection for pedestrians in real-world traffic scenarios. In this study, we prompted subjects (“pedestrians”) to exhibit natural avoidance behaviors in well-controlled near-real traffic conflict scenarios using a previously developed virtual reality (VR)-based experimental platform. We quantified the pedestrian–vehicle interaction processes in the pre-crash phase and extracted the pedestrian postures immediately before collision with the vehicle; these were termed the “pre-crash postures.” We recorded the kinetic and kinematic features of the pedestrian avoidance responses—including the relative locations of the vehicle and pedestrian, pedestrian movement velocity and acceleration, pedestrian posture parameters (joint positions and angles), and pedestrian muscle activation levels—using a motion capture system and physiological signal system. The velocities in the avoidance behaviors were significantly different from those in a normal gait (p < 0.01). Based on the extracted natural reaction features of the pedestrians, this study provides data to support the analysis of pedestrian injury risk, development of biofidelic human body models (HBM), and design of advanced on-vehicle active safety systems.