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This work presents a methodology for carrying out open site tests of VHF-FM vehicular systems. The approach here developed characterizes antennas, coaxial cables and RF amplifiers performance in terms of normalized experiments. The efficiency of the procedure adopted is also proven.

From the many sub-tasks of the four study areas of the EC CASPER project, this paper presents the following point: • Child protection improvements as a result of accident reconstructions and development of injury risk curves. The first step in achieving this aim was to collect real world in-depth road accident data involving restrained children, with injuries systematically coded using the AIS (Abbreviated Injury Scale, AAAM 1998). This activity identified the priority body regions to be protected (therefore requiring injury risk curves) and provided cases to be reconstructed in full scale crash tests. In such reconstructions dummy readings were correlated with the occupants' injuries in the real accident to develop injury risk curves (after validation checks for crash severity and dummy kinematics). At the same time, online and field surveys were carried out to identify the safety of children when travelling in cars.

The purpose of the 4-SPACE (4-Stroke Powered gasoline Auto-ignition Controlled combustion Engine) industrial research project is to research and develop an innovative controlled auto-ignition combustion process for lean burn automotive gasoline 4-stroke engines application. The engine concepts to be developed could have the potential to replace the existing stoichiometric / 3-way catalyst automotive spark ignition 4-stroke engines by offering the potential to meet the most stringent EURO 4 emissions limits in the year 2005 without requiring DeNOx catalyst technology. A reduction of fuel consumption and therefore of corresponding CO2 emissions of 15 to 20% in average urban conditions of use, is expected for the « 4-SPACE » lean burn 4-stroke engine with additional reduction of CO emissions.

The increasing complexity and competition in the car market pushes OEMs to simultaneously achieve both a lead-time reduction and a higher development process productivity. Therefore, car manufacturers are asked to significantly revise their development and production procedures, together with their suppliers who are co-designers vehicle-systems (seating, dashboard, lighting, etc.). Innovative CAD tools, such as parametric and associative (p/a), may significantly increase efficiency and effectiveness of design activities, through assisted procedures, automatic checking of constraints, avoidance of repetitive handle operations. By this way, p/a CAD tools may reduce the time requested for geometry description and modification, leaving the designer more opportunities for studying the design solution.