SAE EDR Symposium: Day 2, Session 5

Bill Messerschmidt
Manager
Messerschmidt Safety Consultants

The final session of the SAE 2011 Highway Vehicle Event Data Recorder (EDR) Symposium - a fine event - was the second Unique Applications.

The first speaker was Dave Plant from Washington, D.C. Mr. Plant spoke about research with the new DDEC 10 ECM system. Impressively, he was able to not only describe the new attributes of the DDEC 10, but he also compared this new system to the results of both SAE 2010-01-1004, which he co-authored (dealing with power loss and key signal requirements) and SAE 2001-01-0808, which dealt with data retrieval methods in other Detroit Diesel engines (and which Dave was the lead author of). Most interestingly, the DDEC 10 is a three-module system, with an additional module that controls emissions.

The second speaker was John Brophy from NHTSA. Mr. Brophy discussed the NHTSA NASS, SCI, and CIREN programs. These projects are currently collecting data, including EDR data, on thousands of crashes each year to be used in various highway safety projects (such as Dr. Gabler's work, which was discussed on Day 1). For example, between 2007-2009, NASS and SCI conducted 21,000 vehicle inspections, collecting approximately 600 data points per crash.

The third speaker was yours truly, discussing driver braking behavior in heavy vehicle (HV) crashes. My research attempts to use HVEDR data for the purpose of determining the characteristics of HV operator braking responses in crash and near-miss events. The research was able to demonstrate similar braking behavior between the HV operators and research respondents in testing of passenger vehicle drivers.

The final speaker was Balaji Yelchuru, who discussed using EOBR and on-vehicle technologies for green transportation. There seems to be a great deal that electronic real-time data can do, not just for our immediate safety as road users, but also for our environmental health and well being.

Well, that's a wrap. I hope those who followed my live-blogging found it enjoyable, and I hope to see you at future SAE events!!!

Testing with the Wisconsin State Patrol

The photo above shows some of our test equipment on a MCI Motorcoach. The bus was outfitted with two VC-4000 tri-axial accelerometers. The bus's motion was also measured by a Stalker RADAR and high-speed video. This bus was equipped with air disc brakes, an automatic transmission, and a DDC Series 60 engine with DDEC IV ECM.

We had several goals when conducting this test, including examining the effects of specific driver inputs on the Last Stop Record. Like the rest of the tests we conducted at Fox Valley, the goal was to replicate real-world post-crash scenarios to see how the Event Data Recorder interpreted what happened.


The photo above shows us creating a Hard Brake record with an International tractor and DDC motor. If you look closely at the left-hand side of the photo, you can see the smoke boiling from the drive axle. This was a really, really fun day!

The results of all of this testing (as much as we can fit, anyway) will be presented at the Midwest Association of Technical Accident Investigator's Annual Conference, during the second week in June.