Principal Investigator: John H. Bolte, IV, PhD, The Ohio State University

WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT?

The Large Omnidirectional Child (LODC) is a new crash test dummy created by NHTSA to represent a 10-year-old child and will be used to test the safety of booster seats in rear seat configurations. This project allowed end users of the LODC ATD to be involved in its development by testing the device’s performance and providing feedback to NHTSA.

HOW DID YOU CONDUCT YOUR RESEARCH?

Since NHTSA is a CChIPS member, linking its dummy development to the cohort of other IAB members made this project efficient and effective. Each IAB member company was able to have one or more of the LODCs at their facility over the past 18 months to run a variety of different tests – including certification tests, vehicle crash tests, sled tests, and even an airplane drop test – and document and share information about how the ATD performed. This allowed both our research team and NHTSA to see the results of the dummy’s testing in multiple labs under various testing conditions.

WHAT DID YOU FIND AND WHAT’S NEXT?

The preliminary findings highlight some durability issues with the dummy and identified changes that should be made to ensure the LODC can withstand repeated testing. The feedback from industry members will also allow for clarifications to be made to the LODC user’s manual. The feedback and finalized data will ultimately be utilized by NHTSA to improve the overall biofidelity of the LODC.

Project Team Members

Thomas Seacrist, MBE, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Arrianna Willis, MS, The Ohio State University

IAB Mentors

Keith Nagelski, Britax Child Safety Inc.; Jerry Wang, Humanetics Innovative Solutions Inc.; Jason Stammen, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration