Simulation of occupant kinematics using active human body models

Vehicle safety is a topic which is present in our daily lives. To reduce the number of casualties regulations and consumer ratings exist that enforce or encourage defined safety levels for vehicles on our roads. As vehicle safety was dominated by and still relies on experiments, anthropometric test devices (ATDs), commonly called crash test dummies, are used as surrogate models for the occupant in test scenarios and during development. However, since more than 20 years, computer simulations are used in this field and a new class of digital surrogate models was developed alongside, the human body models (HBMs). At the same time, technology has advanced a lot in terms of sensors and computational power available in vehicles on the market. A shift from passive to active safety systems is happening in vehicle safety. Passive safety systems that act only in an accident are enhanced by active systems that act prior to the impact and reduce the chances of an impact or at least its severity. At lower loads, ATDs and passive HBMs no longer suffice to represent occupants. In low-severity impacts and pre-crash scenarios, muscle activity must be included in the surrogate models. The simulation of occupant kinematics using active human body models (AHBMs) is the topic of this thesis. Thus, a HBM is transformed into an AHBM. The challenges beyond modelling the muscles in AHBMs are muscle recruitment or control, parametrisation and positioning or posture adjustment. The AHBM is then used to simulate two series of rear-end impacts volunteer tests. At the end of the thesis, injury values are calculated for the passive and active HBM. They are compared and discussed to asses the quality of the muscle and controller implementation.