Dummy Makes Vehicles Smart About Safety

By: Mike Thomas | Ford Communications Network

Ford researchers from around the world joined to develop WorldSID (World Side Impact Dummy), the world's most advanced crash test dummy.

DEARBORN, Mich., Mar. 7, 2005 -- It took hundreds of very smart people from across the globe to make a dummy. Ford researchers joined their colleagues from the Americas, Europe and Asia to develop the world's most advanced crash test dummy. The WorldSID (World Side Impact Dummy) has been under development since 1997 and represents a new standard in safety technology.

Until the advent of WorldSID, crash dummies were developed on an individual basis. For example, the Department of Transportation used its own side impact dummy in the United States. A European developed dummy was used in the European crash standard.

With multiple dummies being used, results of crash tests differed across the globe, resulting in automakers undertaking multiple vehicle development programs depending upon the market. Now that WorldSID takes his place in the driver's seat, automakers could conceivably save billions of dollars in development costs.

Work on WorldSID evolved from an effort by the Occupant Safety Research Partnership (OSRP), part of the United States Council for Automotive Research. Based on that work, the WorldSID Task Group of the International Organization for Standardization formed to create a standard side impact crash test dummy for use in all countries.

Dr. Stephen Rouhana, senior technical leader, Passive Safety Research and Advanced Engineering, represented Ford Motor Company on the OSRP management committee while Risa Scherer, section supervisor, ATD Engineering and Operations, served as the WorldSID Task Group Tri-Chairperson on the effort. In addition, a number of engineers from Research and Advanced Engineering and Vehicle Evaluation and Verification participated in the technical advisory group that guided the development of WorldSID.

Belying his dummy status, WorldSID is actually quite smart, containing 212 sensors and memory boards that record data more than 10,000 times a second.

"The dummy is the first to be able to collect 224 channels of data internally," Scherer said. "There is no large bundle of cables that is required to connect to an external system. This also makes it easier to position the dummy similar to a human in the test, since there is not a big bundle of cables protruding from its back. The collection of data internally also assists in being able to collect more channels of dummy data because we are not limited to the capacity of the vehicle to carry large equipment. Most facilities have a maximum capacity of data channels they can collect, but since the dummy can collect it's own data, it is not limited by the facility."

"The biofidelity of the WorldSID is the best of any side impact dummy by far," Rouhana said. "Biofidelity is a measure of how well the dummy simulates a human being. Technically it measures the mechanical response of the dummy. A dummy must respond like a human to ensure that the information we get from it is truly representative of what would happen to a human being in a similar crash. For example, if the chest of the dummy crushes like a marshmallow in a crash, the dummy would almost always indicate that injury would occur in a crash test. In contrast, if the chest of the dummy crushes like a brick, the dummy would almost always indicate that no injury would occur in a crash test."

WorldSID's biofidelity scores an 8.3 on the ISO Biofidelity Rating Scale of 0-10, with 10 being the best. The next closest mid-male dummy is the one used for European regulation, rated at 4.4. The U.S. regulated dummy is rated at 2.3

The excellent biofidelity of the WorldSID design is due in part to the use of new technologies and materials, some of which were not available for use in older dummy designs. For example, WorldSID's ribs achieve human-like deflection performance through the use of a super-elastic nickel-titanium alloy.

"Chest compression is only one measure of biofidelity," Rouhana said. "Others include angular deformation of the neck and the moment (torque) required to cause the deformation, force and acceleration responses are also used to define biofidelity. So WorldSID does much better at mimicking the response of a human than any other side impact dummy on the planet. Note that other side impact dummies do make measurements in the head and neck, but don't have the same level of biofidelity as the WorldSID."

In total, testing has included nearly 1,000 whole dummy biofidelity, vehicle and component tests. This testing was conducted in 16 different test labs and agencies in at least 10 different countries including governmental agencies in Canada, Japan, Australia, the United States and various organizations as part of a framework research program of the European Commission.

"WorldSID's biofidelity is the best to date of any crash dummy made for side impact and far exceeds that of its closest rival," according to Scherer. "It measures head acceleration, neck forces and movements, chest deflection, chest acceleration, pelvis forces and numerous more measurements on the upper and lower extremities." The chest deflection sensors, Infra-Red Telescoping Rod for the Assessment of Chest Compression (IR-TRACCs), are based on the work of a team led by Rouhana.

WorldSID made its official debut last June at a meeting of the Working Party on Passive Safety at the United Nations in Geneva. It was also selected as one of the "2004 Best of What's New" by Popular Science Magazine in their December 2004 issue.

So while WorldSID may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, he's certainly one of the sharpest tools engineers have to help save lives. In that respect, WorldSID is a lot more than the typical dummy.