May 10^th, 2000

A crash test dummy that walks (almost...)

Honda Motor Company – the first to develop a human-like pedestrian crash test dummy – has unveiled POLAR II, its second-generation crash test pedestrian dummy.

POLAR II has been designed to more accurately simulate the kinematics of the human body during car-pedestrian collisions. Standing 175 cm tall and weighing 75kg, the new dummy will help to gather accurate data on damage sustained by the human body in accidents.

Honda plans to make the new dummy and the data it collects available to companies interested in Honda’s world-leading pedestrian crash test methods.

In 1998, Honda developed its original pedestrian crash test dummy to identify where injuries were most often sustained. The dummy was the world’s first to reproduce the kinematics of the human body.

The information gained from this dummy was used to develop pedestrian safety technologies for vehicles such as the HR-V and Odyssey. Honda anticipates it has sold more than half a million vehicles equipped with the technology so far.

POLAR II has modified joint structures that resemble the human body in more detail. It also has inbuilt instruments that measure the extent of injury in eight areas, including the neck and legs.

Particular attention was paid to knee injuries – the most common and severe injuries in car-pedestrian accidents – so POLAR II was designed with meniscus and knee joint ligaments to more closely resemble a human knee.

Computer simulations of car-pedestrian collisions with improved finite element models are being used to gain more accurate measurements. Honda has reproduced the human tibia in a new leg injury finite element model to gain detailed analysis of lower leg damage.