SAE Govt/Industry Presentation on Occupant Anthropometry Study

At the SAE Government/Industry meeting this month I had the opportunity to give an overview of our occupant anthropometry research, including a preview of the work we'll be doing for NHTSA over the next few years. In the early 1980s, UMTRI led the first ever large-scale, detailed, 3D study of occupant anthropometry. NHTSA funded the Anthropometry of Motor Vehicle Occupants (AMVO) study to generate anthropometric specifications for a new generation of crash test dummies. These data have been the basis for almost all adult dummies developed since that time, including the THOR and WorldSID families. Given changes in the population and dramatic improvements in measurement methodology, we're now doing "AMVO for the 21st Century". We'll be focusing on female and high-BMI occupants, since these populations have been underrepresented in AMVO and other early datasets, but we're developing open tools similar to HumanShape.org that will include accurate body surface and skeletal geometry for both male and female occupant . We expect to have results based on our existing data by this time in 2025 and results based on new data by 2026.