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As a result of the development of Event Data Recorders (EDR) and the recent FMVSS regulation 49 CFR 563, today’s automobiles provide a limited subset of electronic data measurements of a vehicle’s state before and during a crash. Prior to this data, the only information available about the vehicle movements before or during a collision had come from physical evidence (e.g. tire marks), witnesses, aftermarket camera systems on vehicles, and ground-based cameras that were monitoring vehicle traffic or used for security surveillance. Today’s vehicles equipped with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have vehicle-based sensors that measure information about the environment around a vehicle including other vehicles, pedestrians, and fixed wayside objects.

Extensive testing has been conducted to evaluate both the dynamic response of vehicle structures and occupant protection systems in rollover collisions though the use of Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs). Rollover test methods that utilize a fixture to initiate the rollover event include the SAE2114 dolly, inverted drop tests, accelerating vehicle body buck on a decelerating sled, ramp-induced rollovers, and Controlled Rollover Impact System (CRIS) Tests. More recently, programmable steering controllers have been used with sedans, vans, pickup trucks, and SUVs to induce a rollover, primarily for studying the vehicle kinematics for accident reconstruction applications. The goal of this study was to create a prototypical rollover crash test for the study of vehicle dynamics and occupant injury risk where the rollover is initiated by a steering input over realistic terrain without the constraints of previously used test methods.