Technical Paper
Overview of CARAT-4, a Multi-body Simulation and Collision Modeling Program
2002-05-07
2002-01-1566
CARAT (Computer Aided Reconstruction of Accidents in Traffic) is a Microsoft Windows® based simulation program. CARAT allows for simulation of pre-collision, collision, and post-collision dynamics in a graphical environment. CARAT can model cars, trucks, trailers and tractor/semi-trailers. CARAT-3, released in the mid-90's, is a three degree-of-freedom (3 DOF) model, with three dependent DOF, and operates mathematically in a two-dimensional (2D) graphical environment. Vehicle graphics can be viewed in three dimensions (3D). CARAT-4 implements 3D multi-body models with 10 DOF for the car model, and up to 26 DOF for the truck and trailer model. CARAT is a time forward kinetic simulation, but can also be used to perform kinematic calculations forward and backwards in time. Both CARAT-3 and CARAT-4 implement a momentum-based collision algorithm.