Boaring in on Vehicle-to-Animal Road Safety

Researchers are using micro-Doppler radar, neural nets and machine learning to protect drivers from the wild critters that enter the road.

A wild boar can ruin a driver's day - and a lot more. Hitting one of these fast-running (up to 25 mph/40 km/h) and heavy (up to 400 lb/181 kg in the southern U.S.) porkers when they dart into a vehicle's path is a serious threat. Indeed, reducing vehicle-to-animal crashes is a global safety concern, one that is the focus of a novel pioneering research study in Europe.

The project, underway at two German universities, aims to classify and differentiate the potential behavior of moving hazards. The researchers are using micro-Doppler radar complemented by cameras and infra-red (IR) sensors, together with neural networks allied to algorithms developed in a machine-learning system. The combination would warn drivers and other road users of dangers ahead.