Matrix-Beam-an Adaptive Driving Beam System (ADB)

Benjamin Hummel, AUDI AG Ingolstadt, Germany

Keywords: street analysis, efficiency of ADBs, number of LED light segments, sight distance

Introduction

MatrixBeam is based on a LED driving beam. Its light distribution is divided in many light segments. Each segment is illuminated by one LED. This allows an individual switching of each light segment. A camera with an image-processing unit detects the position of other vehicles and only those LEDs which are really glaring are automatically switched off.

Up to now it isn’t known how many light segments are needed to yield an efficient Matrix-Beam system. To solve this question a theoretical and a practical analysis of German streets are carried out. These examinations are the basis of a simula- tion to evaluate the efficiency of adaptive driving beam systems. Thus the effici- ency of different segmentations of Matrix-Beam as well as the efficiency of other adaptive driving beam systems can be compared with each other. Further¬more a semi-dynamic test study will be presented. The consequences of these results for road safety will be discussed as well.