Industry News
Ford joins Global Human Body Models Consortium
17th April 2007
Ford Motor Company will bring its 14 years of research and development expertise using computer human models to a consortium of nine OEMs and two suppliers to help improve restraint systems for future vehicles.
Consortium members will consolidate their pre-competitive research and development activities in human body modeling into a single global effort to advance crash safety technology. Ford is the only one whose full human body model includes highly detailed internal organs, especially the human brain model.
Ford began building the human body model in 1993, creating the regions of the body such as the head, neck, ribcage, abdomen, thoracic and lumbar spine, internal organs of the chest and abdomen, pelvis, and the upper and lower extremities. These regions were brought together in 2004 to create the full body model.
The human body model represents an average adult male and is constructed using technologies like data gathered from MRI scans and topographies from human body anatomical texts. Validation of the computer model is done through cadaver and volunteer human testing.
The model includes a highly detailed spine with all the vertebrae segments and cartilage attached, and a comprehensive brain model that has been used to determine the extent of injuries that can occur during a crash.
Dr. Saeed Barbat, manager, Passive Safety Research and Advanced Engineering, Ford Motor Company says that in the future, virtually-pressurized "blood vessels" may be developed to help determine how internal organs react during specific types of crashes.
In addition to Ford, members of the consortium include: DaimlerChrysler, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, PSA Peugeot-Citroën, Renault, Takata Corp, Toyota, and TRW. They formed the Global Human Body Models Consortium LLC in April 2006 following three years of planning.
The consortium has sent requests for proposals to some 40 research and university groups worldwide. The consortium plans to create five centres of expertise for body region models, such as the head and neck, and two centers for full body model integration.
Phase One proposals are due by June and call for having the first six human body models – large, medium and small males and females – developed by March 2011 at an estimated cost of up to $18 million.
Additional funding and sponsorship is being sought from outside sources, including the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
After the first six virtual humans are created, the consortium envisions a second phase consisting of adult models of any age, body shape and size followed by a third phase focused on developing child models.
The new models will be very detailed and may have 10-30 times more finite elements than existing commercially available human body models.
(www.technologynewsdaily.com, 16 April)
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