Motorcycle Autonomous Emergency Braking system (MAEB), is a technology that introduces also on Powered-Two-Wheelers (PTWs) the autonomous braking, which is able to apply autonomously a braking force to reduce impact speed in emergency situations. This system was shown to be possibly effective in reducing numbers of deaths and serious injuries resulting from motorcycle crashes. However, its safe applicability on standard vehicles and the acceptability among end-users has still to be proven. The goal of the study presented in this paper is to assess the acceptability and the controllability of automatic braking events deployed in realistic riding manoeuvres. Field tests were conducted involving 55 common riders as participants on three test vehicles: a naked motorcycle, a sport touring motorcycle and three-wheels scooter. The automatic braking was tested in four riding manoeuvres (straight-lane, lane-change, slalom, and curve) deployed remotely by an investigator at a travelling speed of 35-50 km/h. The system was tested with the higher levels of interventions tested so far by common users and more than 1100 interventions were recorded. The results of this study will allow having a new understanding on the limits of MAEB system.

European SARS-CoV-2 pandemic epicenter was detected in Northern Italy, in a little Italian town of Lodi province, the Lodi Hospital was therefore rapidly saturated, and in particularly the departments of respiratory diseases and Intensive Care Unit had been largely involved. In this paper, we describe how the first Sub-intensive Respiratory Unit in Europe completely dedicated to COVID-19 patients was organized and managed in our hospital. From February 25th to April 30th 2020, 156 patients were admitted to our Respiratory Sub-intensive Unit. Among them, 100 were discharged, 28 dead and 28 transferred to ICU for intubation.

Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) was proved to be an effective and reliable technology in reducing serious consequences of road vehicles crashes. However, the feasibility in terms of end-users’ acceptability for the AEB for motorcycles (MAEB) still has to be evaluated. So far, only Automatic Braking (AB) activations in straight-line motion and decelerations up to 2 m/s 2 were tested with common riders. This paper presents a procedure which provides comprehensive support for the design of new experiments to further investigate the feasibility of MAEB among end-users. Additionally, this method can be used as a reference for designing tests for other advanced rider assistance systems. A comprehensive literature review was carried out to investigate previous findings related to MAEB. After that, a series of pilot tests using an automatic braking device on an instrumented motorcycle were performed. The specifications for new AB experiments were defined (in terms of test conditions, participants requirements, safety measures, test vehicles and instrumentation). A test protocol was defined to test the system in different riding conditions and with different AB working parameters. A proposal for the data analysis was presented.

Motorcycle Autonomous Emergency Braking (MAEB) is a rider assistance that may soon play a role for the improved safety for Powered-Two-Wheeler users. Several studies were carried out to investigate the feasibility of automatic braking (AB) events. In a recent experiment, tests were conducted with volunteer participants to assess AB intervention under different riding conditions. The prototype vehicles were equipped with an anti-fall device (outriggers), the main object of this study, to ensure participants’ safety. The outriggers limit the roll angle of the motorcycle, thus preventing accidental capsize. Data from the sensors installed on the side arms were analyzed to identify ground contact events, for which a correlation with the driving style adopted by the participants has emerged. There was one case in which MAEB activation was followed by outriggers intervention. However, detailed analysis indicated that this could not be assimilated to an incipient fall. Our results show that the simple sensor setup was able to gather useful information for the experimental tests.