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Automotive airbags protect occupants from crash forces during severe vehicle collisions. They absorb energy and restrain the occupants by providing a soft cushion effect known as the restraint effect. Modern airbags offer partial restraint effect control by controlling the bag’s vent holes and providing multi-stage deployment. Full restraint effect control is still a challenge because the closed-loop restraint control system needs airbag–occupant contact and interaction feedback. In this work, we have developed novel single and matrix capacitive tactile sensors to measure the occupant’s contact data. They can be integrated with the airbag surface and folded to follow the dynamic airbag shape during the deployment. The sensors are tested under a low-velocity pendulum impact and benchmarked with high-speed test videos. The results reveal that the single sensor can successfully measure occupant–airbag contact time and estimate the area, while the contact position is additionally identified from the matrix sensor.

The traditional image processing method has a low detection rate for various kinds of automobile airbag surface defects in the production process, which is difficult to meet the actual demand of industrial production. In order to improve the detection rate of automobile airbag surface defects and meet the real-time requirements of industrial detection, this paper proposes an improved Faster RCNN deep learning algorithm. Firstly, the method adopts the E-FPN to enhance the feature extraction ability of the network for multi-scale targets. Then, ROI Align algorithm is introduced instead of ROI Pooling algorithm to improve the detection ability of small targets. Finally, the designed Light Head is used to improve the running speed of the network. The experimental results show that the average precision of the improved Faster RCNN algorithm for automobile airbag defect detection reaches 97.2%, and the detection time is 23.73 milliseconds, which is obviously superior to the original algorithm and has higher detection accuracy and practicability.

Human fall is the second leading cause of death by accidental or unintentional injury which leads to coma, paralysis, and brain trauma. The existing method has a hip protection airbag suit which prevents to get an injury in the trochanteric region and prevent to get fractures. The drawback of this methodology, it protects only the hip region of patients, without protecting important parts like the head, thoracic cavity. After a fall - related accident, senior patients mentally, emotionally week and getting ‘fear of repeated fall'. To rectify those problems, our innovation presents the use of an airbag suit with a certain sensor to protect the life of elders and also gives an alarm message to care-takers. After identifying hazardous slant, the micro controller must start a sign which can enact the engine driver to expand an airbag consciously positioned kind of a suit. The airbag garment is stretchable fabric that is made up of nylon or polyamide cloth filled with nitrogen or argon gas which will inflate in case of sudden fall, to avoid severe injury in the head, thoracic region, vertebrate column, and pelvic region. With help of tri-axis accelerometer sensor and through GSM the emergency notification sends to the care-taker.

In this paper, the application of Support Vector Machine (SVM) on multiple car crash situations for improved decision of saftey applications, e.g. airbag control systems is presented. In general, we should argue from a different perspective: we don’t want to show the latest and greatest Machine Learing (ML) results. The intention of the paper is to show how state of the art products use ML for safety critical applications. It is the goal to avoid the deployment of an airbag. Today, saftey applications depend on various detection algorithms and sensor systems. The challenge for these kind of decision problems depend on crucial constraints named decision time and sensor signals which are complicated to distinguish. The system has to decide whether to fire or not to fire an airbag within a few milliseconds. We use a (Multiclass) Support Vector Machine to account for an improved classification with the given constraints. Various multiclass classification methods are rated and the two methods One-Versus-Rest and One-Versus-One are benchmarked in terms of quantities as test error, training time, memory consumption and misclassified crashes. All methods are applied to real measurement data of car crashes for the type of full frontal crashes in various conditions. We will show that One-Versus-One performs best. The method is able to classify car crash situations and improve the detection possibility. This allows for active and passive occupant safety components in the automotive area.

High-speed motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) are an important cause of brachial plexus injury (BPI). Some case reports have demonstrated shoulder seat belt use resulting in traction injuries to the brachial plexus. We used a national trauma registry to determine the association between seat belt use and brachial plexus injury in MVAs.The authors queried the National Trauma Databank between 2016 and 2017 for patients with a hospital admission following an MVA. Cases with BPI were identified using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition, Clinical Modification, diagnosis codes. Case-control matching by age and sex was performed to identify 2 non-BPI controls for every case of BPI. Multivariable conditional logistic regression adjusting for body mass index, alcohol use, and drug use was then performed to determine the adjusted association between safety equipment use (seat belt use and airbag deployment) and BPI.A total of 526,007 cases of MVAs were identified, of which 704 (0.13%) sustained a BPI. The incidences of BPI in patients were the following without any protective device (0.16%), with airbag deployment alone (0.08%), with seat belt use alone (0.08%), and with combined airbag deployment and seat belt use (0.07%). Following 1:2 case-control matching by age and sex and multivariable conditional logistic regression, seat belt use (odds ratio [OR] 0.55; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.42-0.71; P0.001) and airbag deployment (OR 0.52; 95% CI 0.33-0.82; P = 0.004) were found to be associated with decreased odds for BPI, with the least odds observed with combined seat belt use and airbag deployment (OR 0.49; 95% CI 0.33-0.74; P = 0.001).Despite anecdotal evidence suggesting increased likelihood of BPI with shoulder seat belt use, case-control analysis from a national trauma registry demonstrated that both seat belt use and airbag deployment are associated with lower odds of sustaining BPIs in MVAs, with the greatest protective effect observed with combined use. Future studies adjusting for rider location (passenger vs. driver) and other potential confounders such as make, type and speed of vehicle may help further characterize this association.

The advantages of airbags in reducing the rate of severe injuries and fatalities in motor vehicle crashes are well known but the physical act of airbag deployment can lead to injury to the passenger and the spectrum of airbag trauma resulting from deployment of vehicle airbags has been extensively reported. We present the first reported case of a pediatric burn injury resulting from the accidental deployment of an airbag in an aircraft. A four-year-old female child sustained injuries to the left side of her face and body while she was aboard a stationary airplane and the airbag concealed within the seat belt of her airplane seat unexpectedly and inexplicably deployed just before departure. We are presenting the case to increase awareness of the possibility of this injury in aircraft and to enable minimization of such accidents as well as help establish protocols for dealing with such mishaps if there were to happen.

Thousands of people are injured in motor vehicle collisions daily and the mandated installation of airbags protects passengers but can also cause injuries from deployment including cutaneous burns. We sought to characterize the patterns and outcomes of burns resulting from airbag deployment by performing a retrospective review of all patients evaluated by the burn service from May 1, 2015 to April 30, 2019. Inclusion criteria were patients of all ages with burn injuries related to airbag deployment. Demographic data, burn characteristics, and outcomes were reviewed. Seventeen patients met the inclusion criteria: 82.4% female and 17.6% male. The average age was 40.4 years. Fifteen patients had second-degree and two had third-degree burns. The average TBSA was 0.45%. The hands or upper extremity (88%) were most often injured, but there were two chest, one neck, and one anterior thigh burns. Eight patients suffered multiple burns. Burn etiology (chemical vs thermal) was often not specified. No patients required hospitalization or surgical intervention, and all wounds healed with wound care. The average time to re-epithelialization was 11 days. Although airbags prevent mortality and serious injury, the exothermic chemical reaction that inflates the airbag is responsible for deployment-related burns. Since there is a chemical and thermal component, all airbag-related burns should undergo chemical decontamination on the initial presentation. Burns related to airbag deployment tend to be small and do not require grafting; however, patients suffer from associated pain, scarring, and burn management can be a financial and time burden to the patient.

We present a novel high-speed sensor for simultaneously measuring the three-dimensional (3D) shape and the surface temperature of fast moving objects. The 3D topography is obtained by a structured light sensor based on GOBO projection of aperiodic sinusoidal patterns in the visible range of light. At the same time, a high-speed long-wave infrared camera records the temperature distribution on the object surface. We show first promising 3D thermography measurement results of an inflating airbag, a basketball player, and the crushing of a metal tube conducted at a 3D frame rate of 1 kHz.

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the protection offered by a center-mounted airbag in far-side impacts using the Test device for Human Occupant Restraint (THOR) anthropometric test device (AT...

Background Many studies have investigated the issue of facial injuries caused by car accidents, but only a few have addressed the technical and clinical aspects of such accidents and injuries in depth. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors and protective elements for facial injuries in car accidents. Methods We analysed the technical and clinical data of patients with facial injuries caused by car accidents over a 16-year period (2000–2016) and investigated the following factors: sitting position, sex, age, accident time, use of a seatbelt, deployment of the front airbag, direction of impact, speed at the time of collision, and occurrence and location of facial injuries. Results Of the 1291 patients involved in car accidents who were included in our study, 291 (22.5%) had suffered facial injuries. We found a significant association between occurrence of facial injuries and sex, speed at the time of collision, impact from the back, seatbelt usage, and deployment of the front airbag. In accidents occurring at speeds over 40 km/h, automobile security measures had no significant influence on the occurrence of facial injuries in drivers and front-seat passengers. In accidents occurring at speeds between 0 and 20 km/h, seatbelt usage (without airbag deployment) solely showed a significant protective influence against the occurrence of facial injuries (odd ratio [OR], 0.130; confidence interval [CI], 0.038–0.451). In contrast, patients who were in accidents at speeds between 21 and 40 km/h suffered significantly fewer facial injuries when wearing a seatbelt with the front airbag being deployed (OR, 0.245; CI, 0.091–0.665) or undeployed (OR, 0.216; CI, 0.084–0.561). Conclusion Male sex and a high speed at the time of collision are significant risk factors for the occurrence of facial injuries. The security measurements evaluated in this study only exerted a protective influence at low speeds (below 40 km/h). This indicates a possible weakness of these security systems with regard to preventing facial injuries. Engineers could benefit from these findings and improve the efficiency of existing security measures and eventually help decrease the incidence of facial injuries.

This paper presents a two degrees of freedom model–based optimization method for occupant restraint systems (ORS), applied before the finite element analysis in a vehicle crash. The method considers the effects of restraint systems (seatbelt, airbag, seat, and knee baffle) on the occupant and establishes the analytical models of them. The method reveals the effect essence of the ORS and takes the occupant response as the target to optimize the restraint system parameters rapidly. The multi-rigid body model of a Toyota Camry vehicle is established to verify the validity and reliability of two degrees of freedom model (TDFM). Comparing the results of the two models, the trends of acceleration-time curves are consistent, and the 85% errors of occupant responses are within 20%. Then, the practicality and effectiveness of the optimization method are confirmed by the instance of Camry ORS. The errors of results solved by optimization and the MADYMO model are all less than 20%. The optimization method can be used to provide an initial parameter range for the finite element simulation to improve the efficiency of the traditional optimization process.

As the airbag of a flexible robot is affected by external environmental factors during the profiling process, there are many uncertainties in the process of deformation of the airbag. For this reason, the general nonlinear control strategy cannot obtain an accurate data model. In this paper, a flexible robot profiling MFA (Model-Free Adaptive) model based on adaptive predictive dynamic linear optimization is proposed. Firstly, the real-time thickness of the airbag is obtained through edge detection by using the image processing algorithm. Secondly, the airbag aerodynamic model is constructed by visual servo control strategy. Then, a nonlinear control system based on model-free adaptive control is established. Thirdly, the weighting factor is used to limit the variation range of the input quantity, and the deviation of the actual value and the expected value is corrected by the adaptive prediction mechanism. Finally, the servo control the airbag is completed. The experimental results show that the improved model proposed in this paper solves the overshoot phenomenon of the standard control model with less control error and higher robustness.

Issues that arise from experts during the performance of court automotive expert assessments (expert researches) of technical condition of automobiles are considered, namely: SRS passive safety systems. The sequence of carrying out elemental research of the passive safety system of the SRS of cars on establishing the reasons for failure of the front (front) airbag of the passenger during a traffic accident is presented. The urgency of this paper is due, on the one hand, to the mass installation of airbags on cars of different brands, which are intended to protect the driver and passengers of vehicles from injuries during a collision, and on the other hand, frequent cases of not triggering airbags in the collision, associated as both for technical and operational reasons, resulting in serious injuries to the driver and passengers in the event of a collision. The increase in the level of constructive safety of the car, above all, is ensured by strengthening the requirements for the development, installation of structural elements and systems that provide protection of life and health of road users. Given the diversity of sources of risk factors for road accidents, constructive safety is divided into active, passive and after emergency. The examination of the technical condition of the SRS passive safety system is essentially a study of the vehicle electrical system requiring safety measures, since damage to the insulation of wires, shorting of individual circuits of electrical wires, and the introduction of extraneous current to the connectors can lead to the deployment of airbags during research.

The inflatable mandrel is easy to be broken and wrinkled during the co-curing process of the hat-stiffened wall panels. The metal mandrel is difficult to demold, the water-soluble mandrel is easy to be broken, and the pressure transmission uniformity of the silicone mandrel with preformed apertures is difficult to ensure during the manufacturing process. To solve these problems, a new process for co-curing carbon fiber-reinforced polymer hat-stiffened panels based on silicone airbag mandrel was proposed in this paper. The co-curing process of the hat-stiffened panels was simulated using finite element software and the effects of silicone airbag mandrels with different thicknesses on the thickness and pressure of the parts were studied by establishing a thermo-force-flow multi-field coupling finite element model, and found that the thickness and pressure of the parts were relatively uniform during the manufacturing process of the new method. The correctness of the finite element model was verified by the autoclave co-curing experiment. At the same time, it demonstrated the feasibility of a new process of autoclave co-curing CFRP hat-stiffened panels with silicone airbag mandrels. This new process greatly improved the accuracy of the carbon fiber-reinforced resin matrix composite hat-stiffened panels compared to conventional processes.

With the exploration missions to Mars gradually turning from detection of the surroundings to landing patrol, an airbag cushion system has become a new research area. A large number of researchers have simulated the airbag landing buffering process through numerical calculation methods, and applied the simulation results to optimise the airbag system parameters. According to a summary of previous studies, the researchers have all used a continuous geometry to simulate an impacted surface. Such a model cannot truly reflect the discrete morphological features of the Martian surface, however, and cannot predict the actual airbag cushion characteristics of the Martian subsurface. Based on this problem, this work proposes the use of discrete elements to study the cushioning characteristics of an airbag. This method has certain advantages in simulating the discrete surface of Mars and the dynamic characteristics of discrete surfaces after an impact. At the same time, to simulate the cushioning process of an airbag on the discrete ground, it is necessary to focus on a method of modelling the airbag based on the discrete element theory. We establish a three-dimensional particle-spring equivalent model of an inflatable airbag microelement based on the discrete element idea, and the model parameters are matched based on theory and a simulation. Finally, the discrete element simulation model of a spherical inflatable airbag is established using the discrete element simulation software EDEM, and the reliability of the model is verified by comparing the experimental and simulation values. Based on a theoretical derivation, the physical quantities that affect the airbag acceleration are obtained; these physical quantities are used as variables to perform a multi-condition simulation analysis, and the preliminary variation law between the acceleration and physical quantities is obtained. Further, a multi-ball model for a multi-state simulation analysis is described, along with the simulation results used to predict the cushioning characteristics of the airbag landing in the Martian environment.

Invisible Passenger Airbag (IPAB) door system must be designed with a weakened area such that the airbag will break through the Instrument Panel (IP) in the intended manner, with no flying debris at any temperature. At the same time, there must be no cracking or sharp edges at the head impact test (ECE 21.01). Needless to say, Head impact test must keep pace with the deployment test. In this paper, we suggested soft airbag door system that is integrally molded with a hard instrument panel by using Two-shot molding. First of all, we set up the design parameters of IPAB door for the optimal deployment and head impact performance by CAE analysis. And then we optimized the open-close time at each gate of the mold so that the soft and hard material could be integrally molded with the intended boundary. We could make the boundary of two materials more constant by controlling the open-close time of each gate with resin temperature sensor.

The ageing population becomes an increasingly serious issue in the world. The number of elderly drivers has also been rising year by year. In order to study the biomechanical response and injury risk of elderly drivers in vehicle collisions. Firstly, the finite element (FE) method is used to establish the upper limb FE model of elderly people with biological fidelity. Based on the experimental data onto cadaver upper limbs in literature, the simulation reliability of the upper limb FE model was verified under dynamic loading. The results showed that the model can accurately reproduce the response and injury to the upper limb of the human body, and obtains the tolerance limits of each part of the FE model of the aged upper limbs were consistent with the cadaver experiment. Moreover, the study used the verified FE model of upper limbs to precede the airbag initiation experiments in order to study the risk of forearm injury at different positions of the airbag. The risk of forearm injury was found related to the crash velocity from distance. Lastly, when an included angle was added between the forearm and the airbag module and the forearm was away from the airbag center. It can reduce the distal velocity of the forearm and thus reduce the risk of upper limb injury.

application/pdf, International Journal of Crashworthiness. 2019, 25 (3), P.242-251

The inner cavity of the hollow fiber with porosity in its fiber wall constitutes a damping airbag with slow passage of gas. The magnitude of the damping value of the airbag and its damping influencing factors need to be researched, which adds the nonlinear airbag damping to the damping of the raw materials and increases the total damping loss factor of the structure. In this paper, the hollow fiber damping materials with different hollow inside diameters, different fiber wall thicknesses, different wall porosity and different wall pore structure were prepared by adjusting and controlling the technological parameters of the hollow fiber spinning and the formula of spinning casting solution. Meanwhile, we have a comprehensive study on the relationship between the factors and performances. It was found and confirmed that the size of the airbag, the wall pore structure, the wall porosity and the wall thickness of the airbag were the most crucial parameters, which can affect the additional damping of the airbag in the hollow fiber. And the controlling method of the four key parameters was also obtained. Finally, the mechanism and effect of hollow fiber airbag damping was proved.

PTWs usually are cheaper than cars, they have lower energy consumption and fewer polluting emissions than larger vehicles. So, over the last decade there has been a significant increase of PTW circulating park. When riders are involved in an accident, legs are the most frequently injured part of the body. The aim of this paper is to assess the performance of a preliminary concept of inflatable leg protector mounted on a motorcycle. Five impact configurations were simulated in a finite element virtual environment, with the car impacting laterally on the motorcycle. Both stationary and moving motorcycle crashes were performed, while the car speed was 50km/h in every configuration. The rider was represented by a Hybrid III dummy model. Since the model was not validated for side impacts, a comparative analysis was performed. A set of safety parameters was used to assess the performance of the device. Their reduction was obtained in specific impact conditions, although mixed with load increases. Despite a widespread parameter reduction was not achieved, the results demonstrated the potential of the proposed device for lower limb protection, and they allowed the identification of the most severe conditions to be used in future development

OBJECTIVES With regard to the pediatric population involved in vehicle side impact collisions, epidemiologic data can be used to identify specific injury-producing conditions and offer possible safety technology effectiveness through population-based estimates. The objective of the current study was to perform a field data analysis to investigate injury patterns and sources of injury to 4- to 10-year-olds in side and oblique impacts to determine the potential effect of updated side impact regulations and airbag safety countermeasures. METHODS The NASS-CDS, years 1991 to 2014, was analyzed in the current study. The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 2005-Update 2008 was used to determine specific injuries and injury severities. Injury distributions were examined by body region as specified in the AIS dictionary and the Maximum AIS (MAIS). Children ages 4 to 10 were examined in this study. All occupant seating locations were investigated. Seating positions were designated by row and as either near side, middle, or far side. Side impacts with a principal direction of force (PDOF) between 2:00 and 4:00 as well as between 8:00 and 10:00 were included. Restraint use was documented only as restrained or unrestrained and not whether the restraint was being used properly. Injury distribution by MAIS, body region, and source of injury were documented. Analysis regarding occupant injury severity, body region injured, and injury source was performed by vehicle model year to determine the effect of updated side impact testing regulation and safety countermeasures. Because the aim of the study was to identify the most common injury patterns and sources, only unweighted data were analyzed. RESULTS Main results obtained from the current study with respect to 4- to 10-year-old child occupants in side impact were that a decrease was observed in frequency of MAIS 1-3 injuries; injuries to the head, face, and extremities; as well as injuries caused by child occupant interaction with the vehicle interior and seatback support structures in 1998 model year passenger cars and newer. CONCLUSIONS Results from this study could be useful in design advances of pediatric anthropomorphic test devices, child restraints, as well as vehicles and their safety countermeasure systems.

Occupants inside the vehicle can be deadly injured by the deployment of airbag at the time of crash. New collision safety technology requires classifying the occupant and tracking their position in real-time in order to adaptively deploy the air bag. This paper presents a fast 3D model fitting algorithm based on grayscale correlation of stereo disparity data, to detect and track occupant head position. The proposed system uses stereo vision with IR illumination for depth data acquisition. By detecting body center line and extra-near disparity calculation, this method is proven to be robust and accurate in variant lighting condition and occupant movement. Evaluation of the method shows over 98% correct head detection and near 100% correctness with head tracking.

Engineers constantly design and iterate products to protect the broad range of users that will interact with them. With the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic impacting every aspect of the college experience, my technical project team wanted to create a device that would help the world get back to normal as quickly as possible. Current mask technology fails to provide an ideal and comfortable user experience while also stopping the spread of COVID-19, and my team sought to fix this issue by creating a powered mask that filters inhalation and exhalation air. For my STS research, I decided to draw on my experience from working at the UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics, a world-class injury biomechanics research laboratory. During my time at the lab, I met Carolyn Roberts, a researcher who was investigating how sex impacts injury prevalence, injury outcome, and injury mechanism. Her research focused on how females are not properly protected in motor vehicle crashes, but I was curious if this trend extended to other demographics, more specifically obese individuals. My final STS paper investigates how the increased prevalence of obesity has influenced injury biomechanics research, and what steps need to be taken to fill the knowledge gaps that currently exist in the field. The technical portion of this thesis investigates proper mask filtration technology and how it can help contain the spread of COVID-19. Current mask technology either filters inhalation and exhalation air or is comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. Designs that properly filter air, like an N95 respirator, are uncomfortable to wear; while comfortable designs, such as a Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) fail to filter air properly to prevent COVID-19 from spreading (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2020; CDC, 2020). The final technical deliverable, a powered mask that filters inhalation and exhalation air, addressed the issues with both designs to provide a comfortable breathing experience while protecting the user and individuals in their environment. The effectiveness of the final design was assessed using three metrics: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis via SolidWorks, qualitative breathing assessments, and mock fit testing as seen in the healthcare workplace, and was found to be effective in each evaluation. The STS portion of this thesis investigates how current car restraint designs fail to protect obese drivers, and how the research field is adjusting to this problem. Despite the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) reporting a decrease in roadway fatalities for the second year in a row, the numbers behind how cars protect all passengers does not tell the whole story (NHTSA, 2019). Modern research shows that factors such as age, gender, and body mass index introduce an added variability in motor vehicle crashes that results in a higher risk of severe injury and fatality (Carter, 2014). New societal norms, such as an increase in the prevalence of obesity (CDC, 2019), seem to be shifting car design to focus more on protecting less represented anthropometries, or body types, in an effort to equally protect all drivers on the road, but to what extent is this change occurring in this field? The final STS deliverable, a research paper, examines the injury biomechanics field through various methods and frameworks to determine how societal norms, specifically obesity, are impacting the development of vehicles. Both projects helped to highlight a crucial aspect of engineering: the proper implementation of design iteration. In the case of the technical project, the final deliverable was the culmination of many design iterations, each one more focused and streamlined than the last. Throughout the process, design requirements had to be modified to achieve the given deadline. In the case of the STS research, injury biomechanics researchers assumed the 50th percentile male was a good benchmark for human body kinematics in motor vehicle crashes as a result of limitations in research technology and limited funding. Making initial assumptions led early car restraint development to not properly utilize design iteration and resulted in the technology not equally protecting every driver on the road. In design iteration, certain ideal aspects of a technology may need to be discarded as a result of technological capability, time restraints, or resource acquisition challenges. The problem of picking which aspects to carry into the final product will result in a technology not satisfying every design parameter set out at the start of the process. It is the responsibility of engineers to carefully assess which parameters must be discarded throughout the design process through the lens of societal impact as well as the technology’s effectiveness in solving the problem at hand. Both lenses of analysis are crucial in technological design because any gaps could cause a technology to negatively impact society once it is adopted by consumers. Often times the people using the technology are forgotten in the face of scientific test data and success metrics. Engineers must look beyond the numbers, ask the hard questions, and constantly strive to understand how the complex systems they create interact with the world around them.

Under the locomotive cab occupant protection research program sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Sharma & Associates, Inc. (SA) developed a Secondary Impact Protection System (SIPS) for locomotive engineers. The system uses a large, automotive-style, passenger airbag in combination with a deformable knee bolster to provide the level of protection needed for the locomotive engineer, without compromising the normal operating environment and egress. A prior version of the system [1] was prototyped and tested in a dynamic sled test with a 23g crash pulse and was shown to meet most limiting human injury criteria defined in the Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS 208) [2] for the head, chest, neck, and femur. The system also showed marginal performance for the chest injury index and indicated potential for an improved airbag design to fully meet all requirements. In the current study, simulations with an optimized airbag and higher capacity inflator system showed that SIPS can provide excellent occupant protection for an unbelted locomotive occupant in a frontal crash. Sled testing of SIPS confirmed the performance, and the system successfully met all eleven (11) criteria of the FMVSS 208 standard [2]. The shape and position of the airbag module and its attachments to the desk were generally the same as those presented in previous research. The key changes that helped meet all criteria were the higher capacity inflators, knee bolster system brackets moved forward, thicker knee plate, higher volume airbag and additional vents.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the nationwide response to passenger airbag (PA) related deaths of children. The response was implemented in 1996 and focused on moving children to rear seats. This study determined the change in seating position of children from 1989 to 2019.Field accident data on exposed occupants in towaway crashes was determined using 1989-2015 NASS-CDS in five groups (1989-1995, 1996-99, 2000-04, 2005-09 and 2010-15) and 2017-19 CISS in one group. Children were grouped as 0-2 yo (years old), 3-7 yo and 8-12 yo. Occupants 13 + were included for completeness. Seat position was defined as left-front (LF), right-front (RF), 2nd row and 3rd row. The weighted data provided an estimate for the change in seating position over time by occupant age with standard errors.For 0-2 yo, 27.9% were in the RF seat in 1989-95. The fraction decreased to 0.40% in the 2017-19 (p 0.001). For 3-7 yo, 32.1% were in the RF seat in 1989-95 and 3.2% in 2017-19 (p 0.001). There has been a steady decrease in 0-7 yo using the RF seat. For 8-12 yo, there was a step decline in use of the RF seat from 39.5% in 1989-95 to 23.2% in the 2017-19 (p 0.001).The immediate reduction in front-seat use among younger children was associated with the nationwide public information efforts implemented in 1996 to move children to rear seats. Children up to 7 yo are no longer riding in the RF seat of vehicles in towaway crashes, unless there is no other option. Children 8-12 yo are still using the RF seat, but at a lower rate. The change in use of the RF seat for children 0-7 yo provides evidence that safety campaigns on placing young children in rear seats were successful in the US.

Current highly automated vehicle concepts include reclined seat layouts that could allow occupants to relax during the drive. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of seat pan and pelvis angles on the kinematics and injury risk of a reclined occupant by numerical simulation of a frontal sled test. The occupant, represented by a detailed 50th percentile male human body model, was positioned on a semi-rigid seat. Three seat pan angles (5, 15, and 25 degrees from the horizontal) were used, all with a seatback angle of 40 degrees from the vertical. Three pelvis angles (60, 70, and 80 degrees from the vertical), representing a nominal and two relaxed sitting positions, were used for each seat pan angle. The model was restrained using a pre-inflated airbag and a three-point seatbelt equipped with a pretensioner and a load limiter before being subjected to two frontal crash pulses. Both model kinematic response and predicted injury risk were affected by the seat pan and the pelvis angles in a reclined seatback position. Submarining occurrence and injury risk increased with lower seat pan angle, higher pelvis angle, and acceleration pulse severity. In some cases (in particular for a 15 degrees seat pan), a small variation in seat pan or pelvis angle resulted in large differences in terms of kinematics and predicted injury. This study highlights the potential effects of the seat pan and pelvis angles for reclined occupant protection. These parameters should be assessed experimentally with volunteers to determine which combinations are most likely to be adopted for comfort and with post mortem human surrogates to confirm their significance during impact and to provide data for model validation. The sled and restraint models used in this study are provided under an open-source license to facilitate further comparisons.

Social touch can be established in human-robot touch conditions according to previous studies in HRI. For eliciting numerous benefits of touching interaction between human and robot, we propose a doll-like inflatable haptic device that can be worn around the hand. The touching interaction with the device is presented by pneumatic airbag system which can provide a grasping feedback sensation when being grasped by a human. We expect this mutual touching brings a beneficial effect on alleviating human pains.

The article presents a model of an anthropometric dummy designed for low velocity crash tests, designed in ADAMS. The model consists of rigid bodies connected with special joints with appropriately selected stiffness and damping. The simulation dummy has the appropriate dimensions, shape, and mass of individual elements to suit a 50 percentile male. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to low speed crash tests. Current dummies such as THOR and Hybrid III are used for crash tests at speeds above 40 km/h. In contrast, the low-speed test dummy currently used is the BioRID-II dummy, which is mainly adapted to the whiplash test at speeds of up to 16km/h. Thus, it can be seen that there is a gap in the use of crash test dummies. There are no low-speed dummies for side and front crash tests, and there are no dummies for rear crash tests between 16 km/h and 25 km/h. Which corresponds to a collision of a passenger vehicle with a hard obstacle at a speed of 30 km/h. Therefore, in collisions with low speeds of 20 km/h, the splash airbag will probably not be activated. The article contains the results of a computer simulation at a speed of 20 km/h vehicle out in the ADAMS program. These results were compared with the experimental results of the laboratory crash test using volunteers and the Hybrid III dummy. The simulation results are the basis for building the physical model dummy. The simulation aims to reflect the greatest possible compliance of the movements of individual parts of the human body during a collision at low speed.

Naturalistic driving studies have shown that pediatric occupants do not assume ideal seating positions in real-world scenarios. Current vehicle assessment programs and child restraint system (CRS) sled tests, such as FMVSS No. 213, do not account for a wide range of seating postures that are typically observed during real-world trips. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the kinematic and kinetic response of a pediatric human body model in various naturalistic seating positions in booster seats when subjected to a frontal offset impact in a full-vehicle environment, with and without the application of pre-crash automatic emergency braking (AEB). A 6YO (seated on a lowback and highback booster) and a 10YO (seated in no-CRS and on a lowback booster) PIPER pediatric human body model's response was explored in a reference, and two most commonly observed seating postures: forward-leaning and forward-inboard-leaning. The vehicle environment with a side-curtain airbag (SCAB) was subjected to a small offset barrier impact (25% overlap at 40MPH), with and without the application of a pre-crash automatic emergency braking (AEB). 24 conditions were simulated using finite element analysis. Cases with a pre-crash AEB resulted in relatively lower kinematic and kinetic values due to the occupant being in a more flexed position before impact compared to without-AEB cases, coupled with the increased ride-down effect due to AEB. Moreover, different seating postures resulted in substantially different kinematics and kinetics, the injury metrics crossing the injury assessment reference values in some cases. Therefore, to design a passive safety standard test for pediatric occupants, it is important to consider the possible postural changes that may occur.

A method to evaluate the effectiveness of wearable airbag protectors for motorcyclists is proposed in this work. The mitigation of thoracic injury severity in relevant accident conditions was inves...

Hip fracture caused by falls and its complications is one of the greatest threats to disability and death of the elderly. To reduce physical damage from falls in the elderly, the current solution to achieve effective protection is detecting fall trends and turning on protective devices. However, the existing products have the problems of low accuracy and poor real-time. In this paper, a high accuracy and high real-time human fall detection and protection system based on characteristic areas algorithm is designed, which can detect the trend of falls within 400 ms after the human body begins to fall and is filled with the airbag in the 400 ms later, realizing effective protection of the human hip. The system got 95.33% accuracy, with an average airbag opening time of 70 ms.

Hoy en día es normal ver en noticias el aumento en las cifras de heridos y fallecidos por accidentes en motocicleta en las ciudades de nuestro país, la escasa protección en este medio de transporte es algo que se ve a todas luces. Este trabajo presenta el proceso de diseño de un producto tecnológico enfocado en la protección vital de los motociclistas urbanos, el cual evita traumatismos en algunas zonas del tronco y tren superior en caso de un accidente de tránsito. El proceso de diseño inició como un ejercicio práctico entre los estudiantes de la Maestría de Diseño de Producto de la Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano y la empresa TOTTO (Nalsani S.A.S.) en el segundo semestre del año 2018; TOTTO trajo en ese momento a la mesa un Brief de Diseño el cual evidenció la necesidad y oportunidad existente en esta tipología de productos, originando así una investigación en temas relacionados con la protección en motocicletas, entre estos temas estuvieron factores tecnológicos, normativos, ergonómicos y aspectos de usabilidad, que guiaron el desarrollo de los conceptos y alternativas. A partir de los resultados de esta constante investigación fueron planteados los requerimientos y determinantes que guiaron el proceso de diseño de un producto llamado OPTERO, un dispositivo de protección vital para motociclistas urbanos, que constó de tres sistemas fundamentales los cuales fueron desarrollados, integrados y perfeccionados durante las últimas fases del proyecto, para así presentar una propuesta conceptual funcional, viable y acorde para en un futuro ser introducida y testeada en el mercado nacional. OPTERO aportó un pequeño paso en la evolución tecnología de esta tipología de productos; paso que permitió entender a sus diseñadores que esta tecnología no debía solo ser aplicada en un producto para esta finalidad, pues podría encontrar una barrera para sus posibilidades y negaría con ello su potencial de adaptabilidad; sus nuevos posibles. En fin, de esto también se trata el Diseño, de ampliar y no restringir. #ProyectoOpteroDispositivoDeProtecciónVitalParaMotociclistasUrbanosTomo2Fase2.0 #ProyectoOpteroDispositivoDeProtecciónVitalParaMotociclistasUrbanos #ProyectoOpteroProtecciónVitalParaMotociclistasUrbanos Nowadays it is normal to see in the news the increase in the numbers of injured and deceased by motorcycle accidents in the cities of our country, the scarce protection in this means of transport is something that is clearly seen. This document presents the design process of a technological product focused on the vital protection of urban motorcyclists, which prevents trauma in some areas of the trunk and upper body in the event of a traffic accident. The design process began as a practical exercise between the students of the Master of Product Design at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University and the TOTTO company (Nalsani S.A.S.) in the second semester of 2018; at that time, TOTTO brought to the table a Design Brief which evidenced the need and opportunity existing in this type of product, thus originating an research into topics related to motorcycle protection, among these topics were technological, regulatory, ergonomic factors and usability aspects, which guided the development of the concepts and alternatives. Based on the results of this constant research, the requirements and determinants that guided the design process of a product called OPTERO were raised, a vital protection device for urban motorcyclists, which consisted of three fundamental systems which were developed, integrated and perfected during the last phases of the project, in order to present a functional, viable and consistent conceptual proposal to be introduced and tested in the national market in the future. OPTERO contributed a small step in the technological evolution of this type of products; a step which allowed its designers to understand that this technology should not only be applied in a product for this purpose, as it could find a barrier to its possibilities and thereby deny its adaptability potential; its new potential. In short, this is also what Design is about, expanding and not restricting.

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Mecânica, O Desempenho virtual de um saco airbag condutor é definido durante o desenvolvimento do mesmo com simulações baseadas no caderno de encargos do cliente, no qual é estipulado o valor de retenção que deverá ter a bolsa de ar durante o instante de colisão. Entre as diversas variáveis a considerar durante o processo de design, a permeabilidade do saco airbag condutor é fundamental para garantir o funcionamento adequado do produto, na qual a costura periférica é considerada uma zona critica de perda de pressão. Por este motivo o objetivo principal do trabalho é estudar a influência da costura periférica no valor da permeabilidade do saco airbag condutor considerando duas análises diferentes. No primeiro estudo são considerados três critérios de avaliação – tipo de fio, tipo de ponto, densidade de ponto –, sendo avaliadas 8 diferentes configurações referentes exclusivamente à costura periférica. Os resultados mostram que para uma costura periférica realizada com combinação de alta densidade de pontos e ponto 401, também denominada por ponto cadeia ,os valores de permeabilidade são os menores, ou seja, sugere ser a melhor configuração para aumentar a impermeabilidade de um airbag. Para o segundo estudo, analisou-se para além da densidade de pontos, a influencia da tensão do fio. Os resultados demonstram que a tensão superior e inferior do fio, bem como a densidade de pontos apresentam uma influência importante na permeabilidade do saco airbag condutor, principalmente para o uso do ponto 401 (a costura mais impermeável). Com a conclusão dos dois estudos é possível traçar uma relação entre a tensão do fio e o sistema mecânico da máquina de coser, que permite a variação da tensão, e assim propor uma solução para melhoria do sistema., The virtual performance of an airbag is defined during its development with simulations based on the customer's specifications, which defines the retention value that the air bag must have during the moment of collision. Among the several variables to consider during the design process, the permeability of the airbag is, one of these, fundamental to ensure the correct functionality of the product, in which the peripheral seam is considered a critical pressure loss zone. For this reason, the main objective of this work is to study the influence of the peripheral seam on the permeability value of the bag considering two different analysis. In the first study, three evaluation criteria are considered - type of thread, type of stich, stich density and eight different configurations are evaluated, referring exclusively to peripheral sewing. The results show that for a peripheral seam made with a combination of high density of stitches and 401-stich type , also called seam “chain stitch”, the permeability values are the lowest, that is, it suggests to be the best configuration to increase the impermeability of an Airbag. For the second study, we analyzed in addition to the number of stitches, the influence of the thread tension. The results demonstrate that the upper and lower tension of the thread, as well as the number of stitches, has an important influence on the permeability of the airbag using the 401-stich type . With the conclusion of the two studies it is possible to find a relationship between the thread tension and the mechanical system of the sewing machine, which allows the variation of tension, and thus proposing a solution for system improvement.