The purpose of this study was to evaluate the kinematic responses of the THOR-AV-05F and THORAV-50M to analogously sized volunteers during low-speed frontal and frontal-oblique sled tests. The THOR-AVs and volunteers underwent sled tests in two orientations using two different accelerations pulses (1 g and 2.5 g). The volunteers were tested in each test condition twice: one test in a relaxed muscle state and one test in a braced muscle state. Occupants were instrumented with accelerometer packages at the head and lower neck. Additionally, occupant excursions were measured via a motion capture system. The biofidelity of the THOR-AVs’ kinematic responses relative to the volunteers was evaluated using two objective rating metrics. The similarity of the THOR-AV responses to the volunteers varied with test condition, body region, and data type. The biofidelity ranking system scores indicated that the THOR-AVs had good biofidelity (THOR-AV-05F: 1.03; THO-AV-50M: 1.02) when averaged across all body regions and data types. In terms of peak forward excursion, the THOR-AV responses either fell between the responses of the relaxed and braced volunteers, or were less than both responses. Overall, this study found that the THOR-AVs had good biofidelity, but qualitative differences between the THOR-AV and human responses were observed. Future publications will compare the kinetic responses of the volunteers and ATDs as well as compare the responses of the THOR-AV-5F and THOR-AV-50M.
Keywords:
Autonomous vehicles; biofidelity; Biofidelity Ranking System; ISO/TS 18571; objective rating metric