SensorLeg wins award at the 2008 SAE World Congress

SensorLeg, TRL’s new biofidelic leg impactor for use in testing and developing contact sensor technology has been awarded the Automotive Engineer International Award for Innovative New Products and Technologies. The award was presented to TRL at the SAE World Congress in Detroit last week.

SensorLeg is the most human-like leg available and is modelled on a 50th percentile male, simulating human muscle shape, flesh density and bone fracture. It will enable vehicle and component developers to accurately test and evaluate new active safety pedestrian systems (e.g. pop-up bonnets) which are designed to reduce head injury in the event of a pedestrian impact.

In Europe alone, all new vehicles must comply with the EC Directive and future trends indicate pedestrian safety will continue to develop as a high priority worldwide. There are already many manufacturers developing active safety pedestrian systems and to date there has been no test tool specifically designed to test them. SensorLeg will complement TRL’s existing pedestrian legform (WG17) which was designed to evaluate the risk of lower leg injuries in a pedestrian impact, rather than test the sensor technology.

SensorLeg is available from TRL and comes complete with full user guide and customer support. A finite element model is in development and will be available shortly.