This paper presents the requirements, design, and resulting performance of a new surrogate target for evaluating pre-collision systems (PCS) that include crash imminent braking and dynamic brake support. The design addresses several criteria for rear-end crash scenarios, including three critical and conflicting criteria:​ enabling high relative impact speed, maintaining a radar signature that is representative of real vehicles, and minimizing expenses and complexity of fabrication and usage. Test scenarios for evaluating PCS are developed using analyses of US crash data sets, including General Estimates Systems and the Crashworthiness Data System (including its electronic data recording data). Test procedures were developed, leveraging previous work in this area. Surrogate target design requirements were developed, notably new requirements for “impactability,” or the ability to be struck repeatedly without damage or safety risks, and 77 GHz radar scattering characteristics. Robustness to higher impact speeds allow testing in severe crash scenarios. Radar characteristics were addressed using a new data set generated using instrumentation-grade radar to scan the rear ends of 25 actual vehicles at numerous angles. The radar scan data was used to create a recommended set of scattering elements to be applied to a radarneutral structure. A novel approach to the structure was used, emphasizing low cost, weight, resilience, and, safety in higher speed impacts. This approach is intended to present a radarrepresentative vehicle target to the PCS under test, while allowing the target to be fabricated easily and inexpensively. The target is intended for PCS development as well as formal testing.

Work continues to refine the target’s signature for vision- and LIDAR-based systems, and an instrumentation system is being fitted to test PCS vehicles in extended use. This work is significant for its contribution to surrogate target work in the emerging area of PCS with crash-imminent braking and dynamic brake support systems. Higher impact speeds and improved radar signatures will improve the correlation between pre-crash system performance in the real world and the outcome of performance testing on the track. Simpler and lower-cost targets allow wider use and perhaps better PCS designs.