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World Reconstruction Expo 2023

VBOX provides insights into the effectiveness of vehicle safety equipment

At the World Reconstruction Expo 2023, engineering and public safety organizations conducted multiple vehicle and pedestrian crash tests to demonstrate real-world scenarios to attendees. The tests also allowed equipment vendors to exhibit how their systems are used in these simulations.

Jim Lau, from Racelogic USA, was on-site to instrument some of the crashes with VBOX systems to collect accurate time, speed, position, and acceleration measurements.

Vehicle Crash Testing

One of the crashes was overseen by the Georgia Public Safety Training Center. In this test, a 2011 Chevrolet Impala was equipped to be remotely driven into a stationary patrol car at approximately 53 MPH. In front of the Ford Taurus patrol car was another vehicle and two static mannequins, simulating police officers alongside a vehicle that was pulled over on a roadside stop. The test was run three times with different positioning of the patrol car.

The Impala and Patrol car were equipped with VBOX 3i Dual-Antenna RTK units to log vehicle speed, orientation, and position at 100 Hz. The VBOX 3i was also connected to vehicle CAN in the Impala to record steering wheel angle. The steering data was output to a VBOX Video HD2, which captured camera views inside and outside the Impala. The patrol car also had a VBOX 3i and VBOX Video HD2 to collect the same position and speed information.

Here is a slow motion video of what the crash looked like from the sidelines:

And here is a screen recording showing the two VBOX 3i files in VBOX Test Suite analysis software:

This clearly shows the position of each vehicle during the test and captures accurate delta-V figures, approach speed, and more. The data overlay on each video was done in real-time, eliminating the need to combine data and video in post-processing, allowing immediate data review before subsequent tests.

Pedestrian Testing

The VBOX was also used for pedestrian testing, where a vehicle approached a pedestrian dummy at various speeds to understand the vehicle’s ability to perceive the pedestrian, provide audible and visual warnings, and initiate emergency braking. This system also used a VBOX 3i RTK for 100 Hz data and VBOX Video HD2 for in-car video.

Here is a screen capture of one of those pedestrian tests:

In this test, the system can isolate the precise speed, distance from pedestrian, and time to collision when the alert is presented, as well as the position at the end of the test, to see which runs resulted in a collision and which ones stopped short. Using VBOX Test Suite software, runs could be analyzed very quickly and in just minutes after testing.

For more information about VBOX products, please visit our application pages or contact your local RACELOGIC representative.

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