Two new innovative crash-test dummies – SensorLeg and Total Human Model
Safety (THUMS) – are leading the way to discover how impact causes
injuries.
SensorLeg is designed to simulate pedestrian casualties and has been
created by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). It contains fibres
which mimic human muscle, flesh and bone and can be examined after tests
to assess new initiatives, such as pop-up bonnets, designed to minimise
future accident injury for pedestrians.
The FIA Institute and Toyota have collaborated to investigate high-speed
crashes, and their effects on human physiology – which rigid moulded
dummies cannot simulate.
Toyota is creating virtual collisions using THUMS and simulated racecar
seat designs to look into spinal injury after rear end collisions.
The FIA Formula One World Championship and Indy Racing League (IRL) are
sponsoring the research by providing data from previous collisions to
set up realistic factual simulations.
For car buyers, the benefit of such research will be fed back into the
design of our vehicles as soon as it is available.
