Jaguar senses danger

Jaguar Cars are using a new long distance sensor to measure impact speed in pedestrian crash simulations at their engineering centre in Coventry. The Micro-Epsilon laser triangulation sensor promises to lead to more accurate tests and better pedestrian safety, which is now an increasingly important aspect of new car design and safety protocols under Europe’s NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme).

The NCAP legislation is focusing on reducing lower leg injuries, concentrated around the knee joint, and head injuries. As part of testing at Jaguar's Pedestrian Test Facility, bio-mechanic models are propelled towards a static test car at pre-defined speeds to replicate real-world impact conditions. 'The impact speed must be within a very tight tolerance band,' explained Miles Dadson, project engineer at Jaguar Cars in Coventry. 'Non-attainment of the required speed results in incorrect contact energies and therefore incorrect injury calculations. If the tolerances are not achieved, the implications on vehicle design can be enormous.'