Despite the rapid development of technologies for the detection of pedestrians in traffic, there are still significant problems with automated vehicle management systems. Often these problems are caused by different external conditions, weather disasters, different light levels, day and night, and more. All these factors can affect the incorrect assessment of the system and the performed detection of the pedestrian object. Pedestrian fatalities have risen recently, even as vehicles are equipped with sophisticated avoidance technology. Vehicle-based sensors can fail to identify pedestrians especially when those pedestrians are small, too far or too close to the vehicle, or partially occluded by nearby objects. Pedestrians have variable physical characteristics and appear in a variety of environments with different background features. The paper analyzes the possibilities and problems that arise in the detection and recognition of pedestrians. Pedestrian safety is one of the important issues of traffic safety in urban areas. The application of various technologies in vehicles provides enormous opportunities to reduce accidents in which pedestrians are most often injured. The development of intelligent pedestrian recognition systems can be divided into two directions. Development of hardware part related to different types of sensors, and development of software part based on artificial neural networks and machine learning techniques. The paper analyzes various technologies used in pedestrian detection in automated vehicles with an emphasis on hardware development. A low-cost system based on two types of sensors, ultrasonic sensor and passive infrared, is proposed. Aspects of the application of such sensors with possibilities of implementation in complex computer vision systems are analyzed. The most common classes of sensors presently used in automated driving applications include visible-light cameras (VLC), light detection, and ranging (LiDAR).

This paper presents an innovative mathematical model of solid fuel gasification, which is not described in the available literature. The calculation of the components of the heterogeneous phase (including both solid and gaseous phases) as well as the calculation of the homogeneous phase (only gaseous components) is based on the balance of the total amounts of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen entering the reactor space. Additionally, this paper introduces a new method for calculating the composition of the gaseous phase, based on reducing the heterogeneous mixture (composed of solid and gaseous phases) to a homogeneous gaseous phase. This approach to calculating the gaseous phase composition in the solid fuel gasification process has not been found by the authors in the cited literature. This paper also presents a model for calculating the heterogeneous and gaseous phases using the number of moles that participate in the assumed chemical reactions of the solid fuel gasification process. This approach to calculating the composition of the heterogeneous and gaseous phases of the solid fuel gasification process is also not represented in the cited literature. For comparison with the literature data, municipal solid waste (MSW) and cashew nut shell (Cashew Shell Char (CNSC)) were used as fuels in the calculation of gasification composition. The results of the calculation of the gaseous phase composition using the model presented in the paper show good agreement with the data from the literature. The calculation of the composition of the heterogeneous mixture during the steam gasification of MSW (α = 0.4) shows the presence of a solid phase (carbon) up to approximately 735 °C. At that temperature, the synthetic gas contains only gaseous components: CO = 33.10%, H₂ = 52.70%, CH₄ = 2.54%, CO₂ = 4.97, H₂O = 5.93% and N₂ = 0.76%. Increasing the temperature above 735 °C eliminates the solid phase from the equilibrium mixture. The literature data on solid fuel gasification generally do not consider the proportion of the solid phase (carbon) in the equilibrium mixture. To satisfy the material balance at the input and output of the gasification reactor, it is necessary to determine the proportion of the solid phase (carbon) in the equilibrium mixture. Since the proportion of the solid phase (carbon) in the heterogeneous equilibrium mixture can only be determined through measurement, the development and application of a mathematical model in engineering practice is of great importance, so this developed model can be considered a useful tool for simulating the influence of process parameters on gas characteristics.

This script discusses a qualitative analysis of the characteristics of coals burned in the combustion chambers of thermal power plants in Serbia. The study includes the following coal characteristics (mass fraction): moisture ($W\%$) ash ($A\%$), combustible materials ($V_g\%$) and lower heating power ($H_d(\mathrm{kJ}·{\mathrm{kg}}^{-1})$). Based on the collected data, statistical modeling was conducted, which included the calculation of the mean value ($\overline{X}$), standard deviation ($S$), and coefficient of variation ($C_v$) for each of the listed characteristics. The results indicate that all analyzed characteristics exhibit significant deviations from their mean values, as confirmed by the high values of the coefficient of variation (moisture 70.20%, ash 62.21%, combustible matter 43.33%, and lower heating value 44.10%). Large mass fraction deviations ($W$), ($A$), $(V_g)$ and $H_d$ around the mean value may negatively impact the operation of boiler plants and electrostatic precipitators of thermal power plants in Serbia, where the considered coals are burned. Large oscillations of ash (62.21%) around the mean value (17.00%) suggests that it is not feasible to implement dry flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) processes, due to the additional amount of ash. Distribution testing confirmed that all examined parameters can be reasonably approximated by a normal distribution. Subsequent statistical modeling using Student’s t-test at a 0.05 significance level demonstrated strong agreement between the coal characteristics from Serbia and corresponding parameters of coals from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The obtained results enable reliable quality comparison of coals, particularly lignites, across different basins. These findings establish a solid foundation for further energy and technological valorization of these fuel resources.