New aPLI Advances Pedestrian Safety

Seal Beach, CA – According to the World Health Organization, more than 5,000 pedestrians are killed each week worldwide. The Governors Highway Safety Association reported that pedestrian fatalities in the USA have risen by 41% since 2008 – the highest in 30 years.

Starting in 2022, Euro NCAP announced that it will adopt the new advanced Pedestrian Legform Impactor (aPLI) in its testing. The aPLI weighs 24.9kg (55 lb), compared with the 13.2kg (29 lb) Flex PLI, and the mass distribution has been refined to be more biofidelic, top to bottom. The structural design has also been simplified to improve repeatability and reproducibility of results.

Like its Flex PLI predecessor, the aPLI features integrated data acquisition and sensors from DTS. The aPLI legform supports SLICE NANO, along with the 6DX PRO six degrees of freedom sensor package and the ARS PRO uniaxial angular rate sensor

Using the SLICE NANO stack extender, a special DTS mounting hardware solution designed for applications with limited height restrictions, the modular sensor layers can be split into two stacks, but still require only one BASE+. The standard aPLI configuration includes 18 sensor channels focused on three primary types of measurements: injury assessment, flight dynamics and vehicle impact

Embedding the data acquisition into the test article minimizes exposed cables throughout the leg and eliminates any trailing cables that could affect the launch.  DTS offers a complete turnkey solution engineered to maintain proper mass, center of gravity and moments to help advance pedestrian safety testing.