SAFE INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Safe, Inc. proposes to develop an occupant surrogate with functions and performance tailor

Description

Safe, Inc. proposes to develop an occupant surrogate with functions and performance tailored to the needs of the vehicle blast test community. The new ATD will use a suite of technologies already developed and the result will be far more biofidelic than the Hybrid III. The new ATD will exhibit realistic injuries such as bone fractures at the appropriate loadings. Yet this new ATD can be instrumented to measure the same gross forces and accelerations as the Hybrid-III. The Safe team proposes to design a femur-pelvis-spine assembly that will enable measurement of the force transmitted into the pelvis and then up the spine to the chest and head. The spine will be developed around individual vertebrae, each of which can be instrumented with strain gauges to collect strain data. This strain data will also be convertible to force data. By combining a pelvis and femur with this spine, the new ATD will offer a system with biofidelic articulation, posture, and injury susceptibility. The components will be modular. A frangible lower leg, rib cage-lung, and frangible head have already been developed with the proposed technology. These components are competitive in cost with Hybrid-III components and assure low technology risk.