CRASH RECORDER FOR SAFETY SYSTEM STUDIES AND AS A CONSUMER'S PRODUCT - This paper first describes a joint development project between Mannesmann Kienzle GmbH and VOLVO Car Corporation regarding an advanced Crash Recorder (CR) to be installed in the vehicle test fleet by VOLVO.
The objective of the project is mainly to gain experience concerning the correlation between crash severity, vehicle damage and bodily injuries of the occupants by getting access to extensive and accurate in-vehicle data from reallife accidents.
The Crash Recorder monitors and records a number of variables during the phases of pre-impact, impact and postimpact.
Parallel to this device a low-cost consumer's device has been developed by Mannesmann Kienzle and the full concept of this device will be presented.
The objective of this low-cost Accident Data Recorder (ADR) is to provide a qualified in-vehicle monitoring system providing vehicle trajectories data for direct use in computeraided accident reconstruction. The result of the specific accident reconstruction can be used for settling liabilities of driver and/or product or for aggregating data in the society's traffic research activities.
A short outlining of the European Community perspective on this issue in the light of ongoing activities within the research programme “Drive” is given.