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Previous full-scale pedestrian impact experiments using post-mortem human surrogates (PMHS) and sled-mounted vehicle bucks have shown that vehicle shape relative to pedestrian anthropometry may influence pedestrian kinematics and injury mechanisms. While a parametric study examining these factors could elucidate the complex relationships that govern pedestrian kinematics, it would be impractical with PMHS tests due to the relative expense involved in performing numerous experiments on subjects with varying anthropometry. Finite element (FE) modeling represents a more feasible approach since numerous experiments can be conducted with a fraction of the expense. However, there have been no studies to date depicting kinematic validation of a human pedestrian FE model in full-scale collisions using different vehicle and pedestrian geometries. Therefore, this study used an FE model of the Polar-II pedestrian dummy that was previously validated against full-scale test data.

Pedestrian - motor vehicle collisions account for approximately 15% of all traffic fatalities in Europe and the US, and 35% or more in Japan and Asian countries. Several studies have addressed this issue, such as the EEVC study. In the development of the test methods, body region priorities are mainly based on studies of pedestrian collisions with passenger vehicles. However recently, the populations of SUVs and LTVs are increasing in many countries. Pedestrian collision data indicate that thoracic and upper abdominal injuries are also frequent in pedestrian collisions where these kinds of vehicles are involved. However, evaluation methods for pedestrian torso injuries are not currently available. This paper describes a study for the evaluation of pedestrian thoracic and upper abdominal injuries using the POLAR II pedestrian dummy.

Honda, working closely with IBM for their model year 2009 introduction, will be releasing the next step in the evolution of speech user interfaces in vehicles. The new Honda vehicles will include the leading edge Free Form Command (FFC) technology developed by IBM as part of its IBM Embedded ViaVoice (EVV) product line. At its core, Free Form Commands improve the overall end-user experience by creating a system that is easier to use out of the box by increasing the overall usability of the system. Free Form Commands employ an innovative approach which allows Statistical Language Model technology to be deployed within the constraints of an embedded computing environment. This technology allows users to speak commands that are not part of a predefined fixed set of phrases, as is required in today’s vehicles, but instead speak command phrases that match the application functional area they are targeting.

For occupant protection in vehicle crash, several kinds of ATDs (Anthropomorphic Test Devices) and associated injury criteria have been used to evaluate the performance of a vehicle body, restraint systems and other safety devices. Because of the lack of sufficiently validated injury criteria for the lumbar spine, it has been a concern that the effectiveness of some safety features for injury reduction based on the dummy and associated injury criteria may not be reasonably assessed. Therefore, in this study, a human FE model capable of evaluating lumbar spine skeletal injuries was developed. Considering an increasing percentage of the traffic accidents relating to elderly people due to extending span of human life and decreasing birthrate, not only an adult model but also a model that represents lowered tolerance of the elderly was developed. From traffic accident statistics, 35 and 75 years old (y.o.) were defined as the representative ages of adult and elderly populations.

It has been difficult to evaluate injuries to the elderly whose body tolerance is lowered due to aging. The objective of this study was to develop human FE models for evaluating skeletal injuries to the lower limb and pelvis of both adult and elderly people. From traffic accident statistics, 35 and 75 years old (y.o.) were defined as the representative ages of adult and elderly population. An existing human FE model for an adult male pedestrian was adopted for the baseline. Femur models were developed first, because there existed most sufficient data of material properties and geometry for the femur. Age-related changes in material properties and geometries of bone were investigated by literature survey, from which average values of Young’s modulus, yield stress/strain and ultimate stress/strain, section areas and cortical bone thicknesses for 35 and 75 y.o. were determined.

This paper will focus on the technology improvements and development effort required to enable human sounding system responses and voice enablement for destination entry for automotive navigation systems. Honda and IBM have been working together since around 1999. The first product to reveal the fruits of this relationship was the 2003 Accord. Voice enablement consists of speech recognition of a Radio/Audio, Climate Control, or Navigation related command, and providing voice responses using a combination of prerecorded messages combined with Text-To-Speech (TTS) generated outputs. The Accord in 2003 used a combination of high quality prerecorded prompts with occasional use of TTS synthesis. The 2005 Acura RL and Odyssey introduced use of Concatenative (human sounding) TTS. This paper will discuss the trade-offs and design considerations for the use of Concatenative TTS as opposed to Formant TTS technology.

In order to minimize occupant injury in a vehicle crash, an approach was attempted to address this issue by making the wave form of vehicle body deceleration optimal to lower the maximum deceleration value applied to the occupant. A study with a one-dimensional two-mass model was conducted to the kinetic mechanism between the body deceleration wave form and the responding occupant's motion while finding a mathematical solution for the optimal body deceleration wave form. A common feature of the three derived mathematical solutions is that they consist of three aspects: high deceleration, low or negative deceleration, and constant deceleration. This was demonstrated by simulation with a three-dimensional dummy. The results show that the response of the dummy closely agrees with that of the one-dimensional two-mass model, thus proving the adequacy of the mathematical solution, and that occupant injury was reduced.

This paper deals with the steering system with conventional round steering-wheel from the view point of Steer-by-Wire system design. Steering gear ratio and control force characteristics are selected as interface variables of the steering system. The concept of ideal steering gear ratio which is derived on the basis of mapping of steering wheel angle and vehicle path angle is proposed to determine steering gear ratio. Simulator experiments are conducted to investigate the effects of interface variables on system and driver’s control performance. Validity of proposed ideal steering gear ratio would be confirmed. Candidates for objective task performance measure to define desirable control force characteristics would be determined from the test results.

In order to enhance understanding of pedestrian injury mechanisms, full-body pedestrian dummies have been developed in past studies. The goal of this study was to estimate knee ligament injury measures for a pedestrian dummy based on the correlation between dummy and human responses. For estimating knee ligament force of the dummy approximating the average ligament failure, finite element (FE) human and dummy knee joint models were subjected to dynamic 4-point bending. The estimated measures for the modified dummy knee ligaments were 3.0, 0.5 and 1.1 kN for the MCL, PCL and ACL, respectively. A full-body FE dummy model was subjected to impacts from a small sedan and a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) for validating the estimated force levels. The results showed that the estimated dummy knee ligament force levels predicted failure of human knee ligaments that is likely to take place first when leg fractures are not present in impacts from a small sedan and a SUV.