Evaluation of human safety in the DLR Robotic Motion Simulator using a crash test dummy

The DLR Robot Motion Simulator is a serial kinematics based platform that employs an industrial robot (as opposed to the conventional `Hexapod´) to impart motion cues to the attached simulator cell. This simulation platform is the culmination of ongoing research on motion simulation at the Robotics and Mechatronics Center, German Aerospace Center (DLR). Safety tests were undertaken to ascertain the effects of critical motions and subsequent emergency stop procedures on the prospective human passengers of the simulator cell. To this end, an Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) aka `crash test dummy´ was used as a human surrogate for these tests. Several severity indices were evaluated for the head-neck region, which was found to be more susceptible to injuries compared to the rest of the body. The results of this study are discussed in this paper.