Collision warning with auto brake & complete high voltage disconnect during crash— A real-life safety perspective

Abstract

A safety system in electric vehicle (EV) activates to protect the occupant during the vehicle accident. It consists of crash sensors to detect the impact of the vehicle accident. Crash sensor activates the switch present in the high voltage battery box. The switch controls the high voltage (HV) battery main contactors and disconnects the HV battery supply. Crash zones to be defined and crash sensor to be calibrated for unintentional activation of the crash sensor. Response time should be fast enough to cut off the High voltage battery supply before the high voltage components like PDB and high voltage cable gets crushed. This paper will brief about possible collision warning with auto brake & high voltage components crash zones, vehicle safety system architecture in EV. Collision warning with auto brake, where the area in front of the vehicle is continuously monitored with the help of long-range radar and a forward-sensing wide-angle camera can fit on the cabin. In addition to monitoring front of the vehicle, system monitors 360 degree of the vehicle by using impact/crash sensor. A warning and brake support will be provided for collisions with other vehicles, both moving and stationary. Additionally, if the driver does not intervene inspite of the warning and the possible collision is judged to be unavoidable, intervention braking will be automatically applied to slow down the vehicle. The entire system will be controlled and monitored by EV controller. This aims at reducing impact speeds and thus the risk for consequences. Apart from the above safety, incase if the crash happened unavoidably, the complete HV systems will be disconnected automatically to protect the harm for the driver & passenger. EV controller monitors the high voltage, in case of any leakage, HV supply from the battery is shut down