Automotive Safety Engineering
For the purpose of improving the traffic security and clarifying the points at issue concerning the environment-driver-automobile system, the high speed automobile simulator and the robot-operated vehicles are studied. The former evolves into the training simulator and the latter constitutes a part of the development of road environment necessary to ensure safety running and of "intelligence cars."

To prevent the accidents due to the structural defects of vehicles and to protect the passengers against the least casualites by chance, ideal images of safety automobile and road environment are pursued, while the experimental method and measuring technique are studied to perform the experiments efficiently and to effectively prove the safety in the case of collision or roll-over. The optimum condition of the brake performance test of passenger cars is experimentally searched, and the evaluation of the brake performance is carried on.

The world-wide trend is toward the increased use of plastics composites as the structural material for automobiles. Experiments on the bodies composed mainly of FRP and ABS are under way in order to establish the safety in practical use.

Public Nuisance prevention
Fundamental research is performed on the photo-chemical reaction of automobile emissions using a smog chamber. Endeavour is given to establish the method of micro gas analysis and the evaluation method of particulate materials, such as lead compounds and so on, contained in the exhaust gas.

Actualities of the vehicular radio interference are under investigation to establish the technique for the suppression of radio interference.

Under the National Research and Development Program to prevent the public nuisance caused by automobiles and to contribute to the traffic safety, the development of high performance electric vehicles is in progress, and the Division takes charge of testing and evaluating the experimental electric vehicles.

25 High-Speed Automobile Simulator		High-Speed Automobile Simulator 　This simulator is developed for studying the factors which govern the safety of a man-automobile system at high speeds. When the steering wheel, brake-pedal and other control devices are operated, each action is transformed into an electric signal to be fed into an analogue computer which simulates the dynamics of the automobile. The output signals are fed to the visual display device and the hydraulic servo-mechanisms cause the mock-up body to pitch and roll, The visual display is provided with both the TV system with road models and the movie system. Photo A shows the TV system and Photo B the mock-up body and the screen.
26-1 Road-Automobile Communications Control System using Guidance-Cable		Road-Automobile Communications Control System using Guidance-Cable 　This system enables the vocal communication between the road authority and the automobile running on the road, and the warning to be issued to the automobile, which may swerve from the course, by means of the "Stereo Type Guidance-cables" laid along both sides of the road. Figure shows an imaginative diagram of the system applied to an expressway. The automobile is equipped with a transmitting-receiving coil and two detecting coils of course-deviation. Photo shows the cabled test course and the fully equipped automobile.
26-2 Road-Automobile Communications Control Robot-operated Vehicle		Road-Automobile Communications Control Robot-operated Vehicle 　The driverless car has been developed in MEL as a device to simulate human driving and for the experiments which are too dangerous for a man. High pressure nitrogen gas is used as the power source of this control mechanism. The driverless car is to e radio-controlled by the operator in the command car.
27-1 Analysis of Human Control Ability using Tracking System		Analysis of Human Control Ability using Tracking System 　The driver's operational movements are being analyzed with a tracking system. Figure shows the block diagram of the tracking system, and Photo the experimental setup. The load of the steering wheel can be set at arbitrary values of friction torque (5〜50 kgcm), inertia force (0.5〜20 kgcm2), restoring torque (2〜100 kgcm/rad), viscous damping (2〜100 kgcm/rad/s), clearance angle (-30〜 +30 deg) and inclination of the steering wheel axis (horizontal/vertical).
27-2 Impact Sled Testing Equipment simulating Automobile Collision		Impact Sled Testing Equipment simulating Automobile Collision 　This equipment is used for studying the secondary collision of the car occupants. The dynamic characteristics of the seats, the supporting effects of the steering column and instrument panel are being clarified.
28-1 Car Collision Test		Car Collision Test 　Photo shows a passenger car and dummy drivers colliding against a concrete barrier. Accelerometers are attached to the car and the dummies to measure the decelerations at the moment of impact, which are also checked by means of high speed photographs.
28-2 Dust and mist		Dust and mist 　Efforts are devoted to the standardization of dust and mist. The standard dust is prepared from powder of Kanto loam, carbon black and fine fiber grains corresponding to the road dust, the falling smuts and the room dust, respectively. The standard dust and mist are used in the dust collector performance test rig, shown in Photo, to evaluate the dust collection efficiency of air filters.
29 Smog Chamber (Photochemical Smog)		Smog Chamber (Photochemical Smog) 　Automobile exhaust gases have possibilities of photochemical oxidants formation by irradiation of the sun light in the atmosphere. A smog chamber is used as the test facility for photochemical reactions of hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen, simulating the atmospheric condition. It consists of dilution sampling systems, irradiation chamber, gas analysis apparatus and exposure test devices.

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