RAMBHA-LP (Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere - Langmuir Probe) is one of the key scientific payloads onboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission. Its objectives were to estimate the plasma density and its variations on the near lunar surface. The probe was initially kept in a stowed condition attached to the lander. A mechanism was designed and realized to meet the functional requirement of deploying the probe at a distance of 1 meter, equivalent to the Debye length of the probe in the moon’s plasma environment. The probe deployment mechanism consists of the Titanium alloy spherical probe with a Titanium Nitride coating on its surface to achieve a constant work function, a long carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer boom, a double torsion spring, a dust-protection box, and a shape-memory alloy-based Frangibolt actuator for low-shock separation. The entire mechanism weighed less than 1.5 kilograms.
As the world experiences rapid climate changes due to abnormal weather, the heating functions in car seats is becoming important. The heated seat allows the driver/occupant to maintain body temperature in a cold driving environment by raising the seat temperature to the desired level. The purpose of this study is (1) to understand the trend of user interface designs across various car manufacturers and (2) to develop a method for measuring the surface temperature of a heated seat using a thermal camera. In this article, the user interface design characteristics of different car seats are summarized based on the literature survey on 100 vehicles (all vehicles are 2023 models). Specifically, temperature controller designs, control methods, controller location, temperature control stage, and price range of vehicles are reported.
With the advancement of intelligent driving technology, the driving comfort of autonomous vehicles has garnered significant attention. Under highly automated driving conditions, the driver does not need to engage in driving tasks. Since the automation of vehicles will reach a considerable level,the driver inside the vehicle becomes a passenger, and now the study of the passenger experience in automated driving vehicles has become an important research topic. To investigate the effects of automatic driving on passengers' riding experience in vehicle platooning scenarios, the study conducted real vehicle experiments with six participants. The study measured the subjective perception scores, eye movement, and electrocardiogram signals of passengers in the front passenger seat under different vehicle speeds, distances, and driving modes. The results of the statistical analysis show that vehicle speed has the most significant impact on passenger perception.
The author has developed UV based photocatalytic air purification system (Mathur, 2021, 2023) that can eliminate all pathogens from the cabin air including COVID-19. In this study, the focus is to determine the risk of infection due to pathogens/germs in the cabin of an automobile. Author has determined the risk of infection by using Wells-Riley model and the conducted CFD analysis to determine propagation of virus in cabin.: 1. Cabin Volume & Number of Occupants (Wells-Riley Model in OSA mode): (i) Cabin volume from: Small Sedan, Large Sedan and a SUV; with 4 occupants (males & females); Number of infector 1; Air flowrate (m3/min); (ii) A 15-seater minibus - with 10 occupants(males); Number of infectors 1 & 2; Air flowrate (m3/min) 2.
Finite element (FE) seat models are typically validated using the FE models of anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) due to geometric and material similarity with their physical counterparts. One of the key aspects of seat validation is to match the occupant loading of the seatback via optimizing the foam material property. The validated seats are then used for evaluating the biofidelity of FE human body models (HBMs). This study compared the responses of the thorax and pelvis of the GHBMC M50-O using two different foam materials – OPT and REF – in a high-speed rear facing frontal impact scenario. The OPT foam was optimized using a Hybrid III ATD FE model, while the REF foam was a reference foam material from literature with a late densification phase. The simulations were performed using the LS-DYNA software. The T-spine accelerations increased with the use of REF as compared to OPT, trending towards the corresponding PMHS responses.
Along with automated or self-driving vehicle technologies in research and development, occupants in vehicle compartment would have more freedom of enjoying and relaxing rather than focusing on driving. For example, a reclined seating posture is one of prevalent positions more comfortably than upright seating posture when highly automated vehicles(HAVs) are introduced onto roads, even nowadays the passengers at Level 0 ~ Level 3+ (SAE J3016 Levels of driving automation) automated vehicle would like to lie down commonly. However, during the frontal crash the increased seat back or more reclined can induce more severe injuries, such as lumbar spine and pelvis fractures. Meanwhile, zero-gravity-seat, where its seat pan and seatback could be adjusted synchronously or separately to a certain combination, could provide occupant a neutral spinal posture, at such posture the least amount of stress and weight is placed on human’s bones and joints, therefore make occupant comfortable.
Ergonomics plays an important role in automobile design to achieve optimal compatibility between occupants and vehicle components. The overall goal is to ensure that the vehicle design accommodates the target customer group, who come in varied sizes, preferences and tastes. Headroom is one such metric that not only influences accommodation rate but also conveys a visual perception on how spacious the vehicle is. An adequate headroom is necessary for a good seating comfort and a relaxed driving experience. Headroom is intensely discussed in magazine tests and is a key deciding factor in purchase of a car. SAE J1100 defines a set of measurements and standard procedures for motor vehicle dimensions. H61, W27, W35, H35 and W38 are some of the standard dimensions that relate to headroom and head clearances. While developing the vehicle architecture in the early design phase, it is customary to specify targets for various ergonomic attributes and arrive at the above-mentioned dimensions.
NHTSA was petitioned to add warnings to place children behind the lightest front-seat passenger or behind an unoccupied front seat for rear crash protection. This study was conducted to help identify the safest seating position. The 1989-2015 NASS-CDS and 2017-2019 CISS data were analyzed for light vehicles in all, frontal and rear tow-away crashes. The differences in serious injury risk (MAIS 3+F) were determined for front and rear seating positions, including the right, middle and left second-row seats. Occupancy and restraint use were determined. Overall, the injury risk was 2.65% ± 0.20% for drivers, 2.57% ± 0.19% for right-front passengers (RFP) and 1.73% ± 0.17% for second-row passengers in all crashes. The risk was significantly higher for right-front passengers than for second-row occupants (p<0.001).
Designing a driver seat required application-based design to observed Realtime body movement with respect to diver driving habit. Every driver having different body structure and habit. To capture foot movement to analysis thigh support requirement under different terrain. With the help of static standard based software manikin will not provide Realtime curvature requirement under different body movement condition. To capture body movement and to create best in class seat curvature to accommodate different drivers and their driving habit we develop a concept using mixed reality VR technology. With the help of Static bunk which has wide range of Seat, ABC paddle adjustment integrated with virtual data. For data capturing we call different actual application-based drivers and allow them to seat on bunk and adjust seat and ABC paddles as per their driving requirement. After bunk position is align, we immersed driver in virtual data to provide actual feel of vehicle.
Improving passenger safety inside vehicle cabins requires continuously monitoring vehicle seat occupancy statuses. Monitoring a vehicle seat’s occupancy status includes detecting if the seat is occupied and classifying the seat’s occupancy type. This paper introduces an innovative non-intrusive technique that employs capacitive sensing and an occupancy classifier to monitor a vehicle seat’s occupancy status. Capacitive sensing is facilitated by a meticulously constructed capacitance-sensing mat that easily integrates with any vehicle seat. When a human passenger or an inanimate object occupies a vehicle seat equipped with the mat, they will induce variations in the mat’s internal capacitances. The variations are, in turn, represented pictorially as grayscale capacitance-sensing images (CSI), which yield the feature vectors the classifier requires to classify the seat’s occupancy type.
In today's automotive industry, the preference for suspension systems in high-end passenger vehicles is shifting away from conventional MacPherson or double wishbone setups and toward advanced double wishbones with split-type control arms or multi-link suspensions. This shift not only enhances the ride and handling experience but also introduces greater design complexities. This paper explains the design limitations of the conventional double wishbone front suspension (with 2 ball joints) and the opportunities presented by advanced double wishbone suspension designs, including split-type lower control arms (with 3 ball joints) and double split-type control arms (with 4 ball joints). Replacing the rigid link of the conventional double wishbone suspension with a four-bar mechanism in the case of split-type control arm wishbone suspension significantly alters the behavior of the King-pin axis, leading to consequential effects on steering and suspension parameters.
The Large Omnidirectional Child (LODC) developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has an improved biofidelity over the currently available Hybrid III 10-year-old (HIII-10C) Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD). The LODC design incorporates enhancements to subassemblies, such as the head, a redesigned HIII-10C head with pediatric mass properties, and the neck, which produces head lag with Z-axis rotation at the atlanto-occipital joint replicating the observations made from the human specimens. The LODC also features a flexible thoracic spine, a multi-point thoracic deflection measurement system, skeletal anthropometry that simulates a child's sitting posture, and an abdomen that can measure belt loading directly. This study presents the development and validation of a dynamic nonlinear finite element model of the complete LODC dummy. Based on the three-dimensional CAD model, Hypermesh was used to generate a mesh of the finite element (FE) LODC model.
An unintended consequence of interior and exterior automotive lighting’s shift to pulse width modulation (PWM)-driven LEDs is the introduction of temporal light modulation (TLM), or “flicker”, to our roadways. TLM occurs when the output of a light source modulates over time, and there are three resulting visual effects: direct flicker, the stroboscopic effect, and the phantom array effect (PAE, also called the “beads” effect). The PAE is particularly relevant to automotive lighting. It is an effect of repeating dots, dashes, or parallel lines on the retina resulting from an interaction of the modulating light source and the observer’s normal eye saccades. It can be detected from ~80 to ~15,000 Hz (and occasionally higher) with peak visibility between 500 and 1000 Hz. Depending on the frequency, depth of modulation, and duty cycle, TLM can have serious effects (both visual and non-visual) on drivers and pedestrians ranging from distraction to nausea and disorientation.
Load legs on child restraint systems (CRS) protect pediatric occupants by bracing the CRS against the floor of the vehicle. Load legs reduce forward motion and manage the energy of the CRS during a crash. As more CRS manufacturers consider incorporating this safety feature into their products, benchmark data are needed to guide their design and usage. The objective of this study is to develop benchmark geometrical data from both CRS and vehicle environments to help manufacturers to incorporate compatible load legs into the US market. A sample of vehicle environments (n=105 seating positions from n=51 vehicles, model years 2015 to 2022) and CRS with load legs (n=10) were surveyed. Relevant measurements were taken from each sample set and corresponding dimensions were compared to assess where incompatibilities are likely occur.
Determining occupant kinematics in a vehicle crash is essential when understanding injury mechanisms and assessing restraint performance. Identifying contact marks is key to the process. This study was conducted to assess the ability to photodocument the various fluids on different vehicle interior component types and colors with and without the use of ultraviolet (UV) lights. Biological (blood, saliva, sweat and skin), consumable and chemical fluids were applied to vehicle interior components, such as seatbelt webbing, seat and airbag fabrics, roof liner and leather steering wheel. The samples were photodocumented with natural light and UV light (365 nm) exposure immediately after surface application and again 14 days later. The review of the photos indicated that fabric type and color were important factors. The fluids deposits were better visualized on non-porous than porous materials. For example, blood was better documented on curtain airbags than side or driver airbags.
Evolving to MedDev provides a new opportunity for executives in aerospace, automotive and medical devices companies to connect and develop long-term growth strategies and find ways to meet the increased short-term demand for medical supplies