Car Passenger Safety - To the Next Level

Purpose and goal

Car passenger protection is complex due to the diverse population and increased car automation and shared mobility, e.g. with new seat positions, seating configurations and car usage. Passengers, not engaged in driving, have a large freedom to change postures. With the purpose to enhance protection of the diverse population, in a variation of sitting postures, seat positions and seating configurations, in case of a crash; the overall objective is to create new knowledge and develop assessment tools and evaluation methods for real-world seatbelt interactions for car passengers.

Expected results and effects

The project results of methods and tools, such as human body models, will be used to develop human-centric novel protection systems. This will contribute to car passenger injury reductions, especially targeting the challenges with increasing degree of automation and shared transportation modes. Through publications and interaction with the international scientific community, the project will contribute to Sweden’s leading position in traffic safety, specifically contributing with state-of-the-art research linking human factors/ergonomics design and crashworthiness.

Planned approach and implementation

Seatbelt position and interaction during crash, for the diverse population and postures, will be focused. This is done through studies on a variety of passengers travelling in cars, development and use of virtual human body models (HBMs) of different sizes, ages and gender, in addition to international collaboration and close industrial application iteration. The two PhD students will develop a family of morphed HBMs, and novel research on human factors design and its interaction to crash protection, respectively. Four Research Topics are focused to narrow the scope of the project.