The objective of this study was to characterize and compare pedestrian automatic
emergency braking (PAEB) pulses in modern light vehicles to understand the
loading environment that vehicle occupants are being exposed to during PAEB
maneuvers. PAEB tests (n = 8008) conducted using 2018–2023 vehicle model years
were analyzed. Pulse, vehicle, and impact characteristics (e.g., jerk, peak
acceleration, pedestrian scenario, etc.) were derived from each PAEB test. Two
k-means clustering analyses were used to group PAEB pulses with and without
target collisions based on their similarity between characteristics. One-way
ANOVA and Kruskal–Wallis tests were performed on the PAEB pulse characteristics
to examine differences between clusters (p < 0.05). Two non-collision
clusters (NC1 and NC2) were identified for PAEB pulses without collisions: NC1
had a statistically significant lower jerk (0.8 ± 0.4 g/s) and peak acceleration
(1.0 ± 0.1 g) compared to NC2 (1.6 ± 0.8 g/s and 0.9 ± 0.1 g, respectively, p
< 0.001). NC1 was mostly represented by stationary adult (88.6%), 60 km/h
(99.5%), and 40 km/h (62.2%) tests. NC2 was mostly represented by crossing
scenarios (child: 92.3%; adult: 70.5%) and 20 km/h (96.2%) tests. Three
collision clusters (C1, C2, and C3) were identified for PAEB pulses with
collisions. C3 showed a greater jerk (1.5 ± 0.8 g/s) compared to C1 (0.9 ± 0.6
g/s) and C2 (1.1 ± 0.9 g/s, p < 0.001). These results suggest that with
successful avoidance, deceleration begins earlier with higher speeds and a
stationary pedestrian, resulting in potentially milder loading conditions for
vehicle occupants (i.e., lower jerk in NC1 vs NC2). With unsuccessful avoidance,
in daytime pedestrian crossing scenarios, lower impact speeds were observed,
resulting in potentially non-optimal loading conditions (i.e., higher jerk and
peak acceleration in C3) for vehicle occupants. At night with low beams, C2 may
result in advantageous loading conditions for vehicle occupants (i.e., lower
jerk and peak acceleration), but it may lead to the worst outcome for
pedestrians (i.e., greatest impact speed).
