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Automobile Manufacturers Present New Crash Test Dummies to NHTSA

15 September 2000

Automobile Manufacturers Present New Crash Test Dummies to NHTSA

    WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 The Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers today presented to the National Highway Traffic safety
Administration (NHTSA) two new advanced anthropomorphic test dummies
representative of a small adult female and a six-year old child.
    "These new high-tech test dummies will help improve air bag safety for a
broad range of vehicle occupants," said Alliance president & CEO Josephine S.
Cooper.  "Safety for occupants of all sizes is a fundamental concern of the
auto industry.  These test devices, and others in development, will serve as
vital tools for integrating and validating seat-based weight pattern sensors
used in advanced air bag systems."
    The Occupant Classification Anthropomorphic Test Devices(TM) (OCATD) were
designed by First Technology Safety Systems (FTSS).  Occupant Classification
(OC) is a developing science driven by the need to suppress or modify the
deployment of an air bag depending on the size of the seat occupant.  The
Alliance directly invested nearly $750,000 in the project.
    Air bag systems must distinguish between an adult and a child.  The
technological challenge lies in developing surrogates for humans that
accurately characterize the human features used by these OC sensors so that
they effectively mimic a human-like weight distribution on the seating
surface.
    FTSS has contracted with the University of Michigan Transportation
Research Institute to develop new anthropometry databases based on weight
patterns and skeletal and body surfaces.  Future products include test dummies
that are representative of a ten-year old and a mid-size male.