New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) Pedestrian Impact Testing

This document, prepared for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by the Transportation Research Center Inc., outlines the Procedures for Assembly, Disassembly, and Inspection (PADI) of the Flexible Pedestrian Legform Impactor (FlexPLI) as of December 2019. The FlexPLI is a biofidelic, biomechanically based test device designed to represent human femur, tibia, and knee bending characteristics in pedestrian safety evaluations. The manual serves as a technical guide to prepare the impactor for testing and to perform qualification procedures that ensure the device maintains specified performance levels. It details the step-by-step assembly and disassembly processes for the femur, tibia, knee, and leg, including the integration of standard 12-channel instrumentation. This instrumentation measures critical injury assessment metrics, such as tibia bending moments and knee ligament (MCL, ACL, PCL) elongations, alongside leg performance indicators like femur moments, LCL elongation, and knee bottom acceleration. Additionally, the document provides instructions for fitting the protective neoprene and rubber flesh system, lists strict torque requirements for threaded fasteners, and establishes external dimensions and mass specifications. Specifically, the total leg assembly mass is designated at 13.2 ± 0.40 kg. This standardized guide ensures consistent device preparation and regulatory compliance across federal, state, and local vehicle safety testing programs.

This document is a federal test vehicle setup information form for the NCAP Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection Tests. Its purpose is to collect comprehensive vehicle specifications, predicted impact performance data, and system safety configurations from manufacturers to verify and prepare test laboratory setups. The form requires data on vehicle model specifications, fuel tank capacity, and ride height settings at 40 km/h. It captures specific grid point coordinates and predicted score color bands for headform, upper legform, and lower legform testing. Additionally, it requests replacement parts contacts and specific windshield bonding requirements to facilitate efficient post-test rebuilding. For vehicles equipped with a Deployable Pedestrian Protection System (DPPS), the document mandates detailed operational, sensor, and safety specifications. Manufacturers must provide sensing trigger times, head impact times (HIT) relative to wrap-around distance (WAD), and numerical simulation data conforming to Euro NCAP Technical Bulletin TB 024. Finally, the form requires physical test verification data demonstrating DPPS activation thresholds, lower-speed impact protection, high-speed deployment capability, and structural integrity against hood collapse under pedestrian body loading.

This document outlines Version 9.1 of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) Vulnerable Road User (VRU) Testing Protocol. It establishes standardized procedures for evaluating vehicle safety regarding pedestrians and cyclists, which is highly relevant to federal, state, and local vehicle procurement, safety regulations, and research grants. The protocol is structured into several key technical areas: - **Vehicle Preparation:** Specifies procedures to establish "Normal Ride Attitude" using unladen kerb weight, fuel capacity, passenger weight simulations, and suspension settling. - **Assessment of Deployable Systems:** Outlines requirements for active safety systems (such as deployable bonnets or pedestrian airbags). Manufacturers must provide numerical simulations and physical test data to prove the system detects a range of pedestrian statures, deploys in time, and maintains protection at lower and higher speeds without compromising safety due to bonnet collapse. - **Vehicle Marking and Grid Systems:** Detailed instructions for mapping the vehicle's front end into specific test zones—including the Bonnet Leading Edge, Bumper Corners, Wrap Around Distances (WAD), and the Internal Bumper Reference Line. This grid system determines specific impact points for child/adult headforms, upper legforms, and legforms. - **Test Procedures:** Guidelines for conducting physical subsystem impact tests, including calibration, gravity compensation, and recording impact point locations. Ultimately, this protocol ensures objective, repeatable laboratory testing to measure and grade how well vehicle designs mitigate injuries to vulnerable road users during a collision.

This document is a draft of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Laboratory Test Procedure for the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) Pedestrian Impact Testing, dated June 2025/September 2026. Prepared by the Office of Crashworthiness Standards, this manual provides comprehensive guidelines and technical protocols for contracted laboratories to conduct standardized pedestrian safety evaluations. The procedure is designed to assess pedestrian injury risks by impacting vehicle front ends with specialized test devices representing human body parts. It outlines test specifications for adult and child headforms, upper legforms, and the FlexPLI lower legform, detailing specific injury criteria limits such as HIC15, femur bending moments, and tibia bending moments. Additionally, it defines protocols for testing Deployable Pedestrian Protection Systems (DPPS) using the uninstrumented Pedestrian Detection Impactor 2 (PDI-2). The document details strict administrative and operational rules for contractors, including facility security, vehicle storage, and mandatory project plans. It establishes precise technical requirements for test facilities, data acquisition systems, high-speed photography, and instrument calibration traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Furthermore, the guide provides highly detailed, step-by-step instructions for test vehicle preparation, coordinate measurement machine (CMM) marking, and physical impact testing. These standardized procedures ensure uniform data collection to help NHTSA provide accurate vehicle safety ratings to consumers.

This document, prepared for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), serves as Appendix D: Procedures for Assembly, Disassembly, and Inspection (PADI) of the Pedestrian Upper Legform Impactor. It provides detailed, step-by-step instructions to prepare the impactor for qualification and vehicle testing in compliance with federal and international safety regulations, such as UNECE Regulation 127 and Euro NCAP protocols. The upper legform impactor is designed to measure femur bending moments and pelvic forces to assess pedestrian injury risks. Key assembly procedures detailed in the document include setting the torque limiting joint to a specific resistance (675 Nm ± 25 Nm) to protect testing equipment, installing piezo-electric load transducers to measure impact force, and fitting the double-layered Confor foam flesh and protective rubber skin. Additionally, the guide outlines specifications for adding ballast weights to meet required testing masses—specifically 12.0 kg for qualification testing and 10.5 kg for vehicle testing. It concludes with guidelines for routine inspections, such as checking the foam and skin for wear and verifying the alignment of the rear member, and provides major external dimensions and mass specifications. This technical manual ensures the impactor is consistently maintained and calibrated to deliver accurate, repeatable safety performance data.

This document, prepared for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by the Transportation Research Center Inc., provides the Procedures for Assembly, Disassembly, and Inspection (PADI) for the child pedestrian headform. Serving as a technical guide for federal compliance and testing, the document details the necessary steps to prepare the headform for periodic qualification testing. These tests ensure the device maintains specified performance levels in alignment with UNECE regulations and NHTSA’s companion qualification procedures. Constructed from a cast aluminum sphere with a tuned vinyl skull cap skin to simulate humanlike impact responses, the headform incorporates triaxial accelerometer mounting capabilities at its center of gravity. The guide outlines the assembly of key components—including the skull casting, headform flesh, back plate, and damped uniaxial or triaxial accelerometers—while providing detailed routing instructions for sensor wiring. No specific torque requirements are mandated. Additionally, the document establishes maintenance and physical specifications to ensure test repeatability. Users are instructed to inspect the headform skin, skull assembly, and back plate for tears, cracks, or thread damage, repairing or replacing components as needed. Finally, the PADI defines strict physical parameters, specifying an overall headform diameter of 165 mm (± 1 mm), a skin thickness of 14 mm (± 0.5 mm), a total mass of 3.5 kg (± 0.07 kg), and a center of gravity located at the geometric center of the sphere within a ± 2 mm tolerance.

This government document, prepared for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in December 2019, outlines the Procedures for Assembly, Disassembly, and Inspection (PADI) for the Adult Pedestrian Headform. Serving as a technical guide for federal and state compliance, the document ensures the headform is properly maintained for periodic safety and qualification testing in accordance with international and federal standards. The headform consists of a cast aluminum sphere wrapped in a tuned vinyl skin to simulate humanlike impact responses. It features a triaxial accelerometer mounting system at its center of gravity to measure acceleration across three axes. The document details two valid instrumentation configurations using either three damped uniaxial accelerometers or a single damped triaxial accelerometer. Step-by-step instructions guide users through assembling the accelerometer mount, routing the wiring, inserting the skull casting into the vinyl flesh, and securing the back plate. Disassembly is performed by reversing these steps. The guide mandates regular inspections of the headform skin for tears and structural components for cracks or thread damage. Finally, it defines strict physical specifications to maintain qualification: an overall diameter of 165 mm (±1 mm), a total assembly mass of 4.5 kg (±0.1 kg), and a center of gravity positioned within 2 mm of the sphere's geometric center.

This government document outlines Appendix E: Qualification Procedures for Pedestrian Test Devices, which provides NCAP contract test laboratories with technical requirements for pedestrian protection testing. Derived from ECE Regulation 127 with modifications by NHTSA’s Vehicle Research & Test Center (VRTC), the procedures define testing intervals and performance corridors for three main impactor types. First, the Flexible Lower Legform Impactor requires annual static testing, dynamic inverse testing every 20 impacts, and dynamic pendulum testing if performance criteria are exceeded by 20%. The document details temperature controls, loading tolerances, and sensor corridors for ligament elongation and tibia bending moments. Second, the Upper Legform Impactor is limited to 20 vehicle impacts before re-qualification, requiring specialized storage, humidity controls, and a precise propulsion test into a stationary pendulum tube to measure peak forces and bending moments. Third, the Child and Adult Headform Impactors also require re-qualification after 20 impacts or after one year. These are evaluated via three drop tests onto a rigid steel plate, measuring peak resultant acceleration. Overall, these stringent procedures ensure that test laboratories maintain instrument accuracy and repeatability to evaluate vehicle pedestrian safety under federal standards.

This Request for Proposal (RFP), Solicitation # 693JJ926R000073, is issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to secure a contractor to perform Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection testing for the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). The agency plans to award an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract featuring Firm Fixed Price (FFP) and Cost Reimbursement (CR) delivery orders over a 60-month performance period, with an optional six-month extension. The contractor must provide all qualified personnel, facilities, and equipment to execute comparative safety evaluations on production vehicles. Testing will assess vehicle front-end design safety regarding pedestrian impacts. Specific tasks include conducting headform, FlexPLI, aPLI, and upper legform impact tests, along with active hood sensing tests, 3D vehicle front-end scanning, and instrument calibrations conforming to NIST standards. Key contract deliverables include establishing a Quality Assurance Management Plan, submitting in-house laboratory procedures, generating vehicle condition and monthly status reports, and delivering test data and final reports within strictly defined timelines. The RFP also details provisions for manufacturer-funded "optional" NCAP testing, requiring the contractor to maintain identical testing rigor and independent vehicle procurement protocols. Strict security measures are enforced, prohibiting unauthorized witnesses and restricting data dissemination without prior government approval.

This document outlines Appendix F of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) federal contract, detailing the test deliverables, report guidelines, and scheduling requirements for the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection Test Series. It establishes the mandatory reporting standards and documentation procedures for contracted testing laboratories. The document is structured into several key reporting and deliverable categories: - **Status Reporting:** Contractors must submit pre- and post-test Vehicle Condition Reports, Monthly Status Reports (covering vehicle inventory, invoicing, Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs)/sensors, and parts procurement), and rapid notifications (within 24–48 hours) for invalid tests or excessive injury values. - **NCAP Test Deliverables:** Deliverables include vehicle markup data, 24-hour Quicklook Reports, electronic data tapes formatted to NHTSA guidelines, Quality Control Packages (incorporating high-speed videos and calibration data), Draft Test Reports (due within one week of test completion), and comprehensive, public-ready Final Test Reports. - **Test Report Layout and Standardization:** Standardized formats are prescribed for the first three pages of the Final Test Report—including the cover page, DOT disclaimer, and Technical Report Documentation Page (Form DOT F1700.7)—as well as the structure for the remaining technical sections covering Headform, Lower Legform, and Upper Legform testing. - **Data Sheets and Supplemental Reports:** Templates and data fields are provided to uniformly document vehicle parameters, CMM coordinate markup points, and critical injury values for each impactor type, alongside administrative tracking templates for inventory and invoicing.

This document outlines a standardized Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) data collection template for vehicle safety testing under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) 2024 Notice. The template is designed to record three-dimensional geometric coordinates (X, Y, Z) and general measurements of a vehicle's front-end and exterior surfaces to facilitate pedestrian crash protection evaluations. Key sections of the document include: - **Vehicle and Measurement Metadata:** Captures vehicle make, model, year, VIN, tire pressure, ride heights, and test methodology details. - **Reference Lines and Points:** Tracks CMM coordinates for critical reference points, such as the ground reference plane, axle centerlines, front striker plates, and hood edges. - **Pedestrian Safety Boundaries:** Maps various reference lines including the Leading Edge Reference Line (LERL), Side Reference Lines (SRL), Rear Reference Line (RRL), and Windscreen Rear Reference Line (WRRL). - **Wrap Around Distance (WAD) Lines:** Records coordinates along specific WAD contours (ranging from WAD 1000 mm to WAD 2500 mm) to define potential head and leg impact zones. - **Impact Grid Points:** Establishes precise testing grids for Head Impact, Upper Leg Impact, and Lower Leg Impact testing, alongside bumper profile measurements. Ultimately, this technical data sheet serves as a standardized reporting framework to ensure precise, repeatable physical measurements required for federal vehicle safety compliance and pedestrian protection assessments.