Designing Vehicle Warning Systems for Specific Purposes
Directing Sound According to Need
Electric vehicles are difficult to hear at low speeds. The SPEAKeR research project aims to develop vehicle warning systems that reliably alert road users while reducing unnecessary noise. Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts is focusing on adjustable directional characteristics. Novicos is developing compact simulation models designed to speed up acoustic calculations and enable efficient virtual design.
Project Goal
Greater Safety with Less Noise
SPEAKeR is designed to simulate the entire transmission path—from the electrical input signal through the speaker and its installation environment to the person receiving the sound. This allows vehicle warning systems to be virtually designed and variants compared before physical prototypes are built. Building on this, a Smart-AVAS with adjustable directional characteristics is being developed. An adjustable sound guidance system is designed to direct the warning sound from a single speaker primarily forward or backward, depending on the direction of travel. The goal is to provide a reliable warning within the relevant area while minimizing unnecessary sound emissions in other directions.
The Role of Novicos GmbH
Accelerate Development with Compact Replacement Models
Drawing on its expertise in numerical acoustics and coupled loudspeaker modeling, Novicos develops compact surrogate models for individual sections of the transmission path and combines them into a single overall model.
When changes are made, only the affected section needs to be recalculated. This makes it possible to evaluate speaker positions, installation scenarios, and sound guidance concepts much more quickly. In collaboration with Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the methods are being verified through measurement and validated using a vehicle demonstrator.
Collaboration Within the Network
Project partners: Novicos GmbH and Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts
SPEAKeR is a joint research project between Novicos GmbH and Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The project will run from December 2025 to May 2028. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy through the Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM).
Further details
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Your contact person
If you have any questions or would like more details about how SPEAKeR works, please feel free to contact me.
Christiane Gillner
Engineer