Crash test dummies to get old and obese

The new crash test dummies are based on thousands of CT scans that Wang and his team made of accident victims. The resulting 3D images were measured in a process called analytic morphomics, a method for expressing different physiological states in numbers and measurements.

Wang said Humanetics’ engineers now have a clearer mathematical understanding of the human body, enabling them to make the new dummies more accurate. The data is also being used to install artificial organs that will behave like real ones in a crash.

Both dummies are still at the prototype stage but Jim Davis, vice president of engineering at Humanetics, is keen to make them a reality. “It takes a village to raise a dummy, so we’re working not only with ICAM but with major OEMs on their development,” he said.

Dummies in line for more realistic ribs and even organs

With the data from thousands of CT scans taken of car crash victims, engineers at Humanetics are using 3D printing to produce body parts and vital organs that will behave like the real things in a car crash.

“We use 3D printing to create body parts such as a rib,” said Jim Davis of Humanetics. “Previously, we had to design something that would deflect and move like a rib but not break like one. We’d make a metal rib with some dampening material glued to it, but after a certain number of crashes, the bonding would change. With 3D printing and new materials, we can tune a rib to the precise performance we want.”

Working with Michigan and Ohio state universities, his team are also studying how, depending on where it breaks, a rib might pierce an organ. In addition, they’re investigating what trauma organs suffer under rapid deceleration.

“There will always be physical testing but the science is advancing fast so that one day you could replace physical with virtual testing,” said Davis.

John Evans