Abstract
With the aim of improving night time traffic safety the Computer aided Lighting Simulation Tool CaLiST is presented. CaLiST allows a systematic analysis and optimisation of a dynamic headlamp levelling device. A dynamic headlamp levelling device is an adaptive light function which compensates for the disadvantages of illumination due to the vehicles dynamic pitch angle. It avoids glare caused by acceleration and improves drivers` visibility during braking by correcting the aim of the vehicles headlights. For both aspects it is necessary to consider the complex temporal combination between the specific dynamics of the vehicles pitch angle and light distribution. Up to now exact timeresolved studies how a dynamic levelling device acts within the system angle dynamics / light distribution do not exist. Therefore new investigations about dynamic glare can not be taken into account during the developing process of such a device. The simulation with CaLiST covers all parts of the control system (vehicle model, sensor system, C-Source Code of the control unit, actuator and light distribution) to calculate illuminances in different points of the road scene.
Thus, it is possible to design, test and control the dynamic headlamp levelling device in a rapid prototyping process under consideration of physiological and psychological aspects.