Volpe Center Highlights - March/April 2006
Safety
Letter from the Director |
Focus |
Safety |
Security |
Published and Presented
Volpe Contributes to Annual TRB Meeting
A Multidimensional Approach to Integrated Vehicle Safety Research (NHTSA)
As highway fatality rates level off, researchers must augment and revitalize traditional approaches to address emerging technical, demographic, and societal trends. Accordingly, the DOT's Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Program focuses in part on solving traffic safety problems through the development and deployment of advanced-technology safety systems. The Volpe Center's vehicle safety research in ITS provides a foundation upon which industry can design and deploy safe and effective products that help drivers avoid hazards and mitigate the severity of motor vehicle crashes. Recently, at the invitation of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Dr. Wassim Najm of the Advanced Safety Technology Division presented a multidimensional perspective on this work—which includes crash-problem definition and safety-benefits estimation.
The Volpe Center has been conducting research for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Office of Vehicle Safety Research since 1999. Through rigorous analysis of crash scenarios, Volpe researchers have gained a thorough understanding of collision types and causes, and have identified four collision types with the greatest potential for prevention—rear-end, lane-change, crossing-path, and single-vehicle road departures. After developing countermeasure concepts for a crash type, Volpe Center teams determine high-level functional requirements for a potential crash-avoidance system and assess existing technologies. Industry then designs and builds new systems based on these requirements. As an independent evaluator, the Volpe Center assesses industry prototypes for safety benefits, driver acceptance, system capability, and deployment potential.
Integrated Vehicle
Safety Research
Goal
Facilitate the development and
deployment of advanced technology safety systems
Objectives
Define the crash problem to support the development of countermeasure concepts, performance specifications, system build, and test procedures
Estimate safety benefits to aid deployment decision
Identify data needs to enhance crash problem definition and safety benefits estimation
At the 2006 SAE Automotive Dynamics Stability and Controls Conference in Novi, Michigan, Dr. Najm presented "Multi-Dimensional Approach to Integrated Vehicle Safety Research," proposing a framework based on a relational Haddon matrix that integrates advanced technology systems to improve motor vehicle safety. The Haddon matrix breaks the motor vehicle crash into separate pre-event, event, and post-event areas, which are cross-correlated with human, vehicle, and environmental factors. Dr. Najm's application of the Haddon matrix links the three areas by driver-vehicle response to each area, and provides sequential intervention opportunities to avoid crashes, prevent injuries, and/or mitigate injury severity. This approach will maximize the potential safety benefits of today's countermeasure technologies, not only integrating systems in each area, but also integrating systems across the three areas.
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