Every year, children are left unattended in parked cars and lose their lives due to heat stroke. Child Presence Detection (CPD) systems are designed to prevent just that. The CPD systems use various sensors to detect the presence of a child in the vehicle and inform and warn the driver whenever a child is left in the vehicle. The newly developed MESSRING CPD dummy, which replicates a newborn in shape and size, enables reliable and standardized presence verification, including respiratory movement, in vehicles.
The procedure ensures efficient testing and development. Real people cannot be used in functional tests, which evaluate such systems. On the one hand, the standardisation requirements make the use of dummies unavoidable; on the other hand, the safety-relevant area of application of such systems in vehicles is primarily children aged 0 to 6 years. Various systems can be used for occupant detection, including sensors that detect any movements of a child. The less an object moves, the more difficult it is to detect. The most difficult scenario to assume is a sleeping newborn with just the movement of the upper body caused by breathing.
This exact scenario can easily be implemented with the MESSRING CPD. The dummy meets the breathing rate of 30 bpm required by the Euro NCAP protocol and has a realistic movement amplitude in the chest and abdomen. The breathing rate and the ratio of chest and abdominal breathing can be controlled and adjusted by a well-engineered pneumatic system. The battery-powered compressor can be easily stored in the trunk and connected to the dummy. The child dummy was deliberately manufactured without electric drives to prevent sensor irritation.
"With the inclusion in the NCAP rating from 2023 onwards, Child Presence Detection is getting the attention it certainly deserves. With comparatively simple means, human lives are saved in this way," says Dr. Igor Doric, Executive Director of MESSRING Active Safety, and adds "the CPD dummy should support all manufacturers and engineers to reproducibly test their CPD systems under realistic conditions and thus achieve the best possible detection for the protection of passengers."
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