Humanetics

Samuel Alderson

One of the companies that would become Humanetics was founded as Humanoid Systems in Beverly Hills, California in 1973 by Sam Alderson, an inventor and engineer.[4] Alderson had previously founded and sold Alderson Research Laboratories, an early manufacturer of dummies for ejector seat testing for the Air Force.[4] Humanoid Systems won large contracts with General Motors and Ford to sell crash test dummies for $20,000 each.[4]

In 1990, Alderson Research Laboratories and Humanoid Systems merged to form First Technology Safety Systems (FTSS).[5]

In 1999, FTSS acquired the dummy-development and manufacturing business of the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research.[6]

In 2001, FTSS acquired HITEC Sensor Solutions, an American manufacturer of specialized strain gage applications.[6]

In December 2005, FTSS was acquired by Honeywell.[7]

In March 2006, Honeywell announced they were selling FTSSS to a private equity firm.[8]

In 2008, Christopher O’Connor, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former General Electric Co. executive with an engineering background became CEO of FTSS.[9]

In 2009, Humanetics was formed by Chicago private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital Ltd. FTSS with Milan Township Ohio-based ATD company Denton ATD Inc.[10] The subsidiaries Humanetics, HITEC Sensor Solutions and Sensor Developments Inc. were placed under a holding company, Safety Technology Holdings Inc (STH), based in Farmington Hills, Michigan.[11]

In December 2013, Wynnchurch Capital Ltd sold STH to San Francisco-based private equity company Golden Gate Capital.[10]

In 2014, the company began producing heavier dummies with a higher body mass index to more accurately replicate crash results involving heavier humans.[12]

Safety Digital Sensors

In February 2015, STH acquired FronTone GmbH, an Austrian manufacturer of safety-test equipment.[13]

In February 2017, STH acquired Fibercore Limited, a British manufacturer of specialty optical fibers.[14] Also in February, STH signed an exclusive agreement with AICON 3D Systems to provide vehicle safety testing systems.[15]

In February 2018, London-based investment firm Bridgepoint acquired STH from Golden Gate Capital.[16] In March, STH acquired DSD Testing GmbH, an Austrian manufacturer of safety-test equipment.[17] In May, Humanetics began 3D printing dummies.[18] In October, STH's HITEC Sensors division acquired United Kingdom-based Aero Sense Technologies, a manufacturer of custom sensors for aerospace and industrial customers.[19]

In January 2019, Humanetics and several automakers and suppliers including BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Zoox, Faurecia and Autoliv formed the Advanced Driving Systems Consortium, to develop seating standards that the NHTSA can use for autonomous vehicles.[20] In February, Safety Technology Holdings purchased laser processing equipment company OpTek Systems.[21]

In July 2020, STH renamed itself as Humanetics Group.[22]

In March 2021, Humanetics Group acquired design firm Human Solutions GmbH and body scanning firm Avalution GmbH, both based in Kaiserslautern, Germany.[23]

In May 2022, Humanetics organizes its existing structure into three core groups, Humanetics Safety, Humanetics Digital, and Humanetics Sensors.[1]

In June 2022, Humanetics announces that mg-sensor GmbH, specialists in the design and development of high-quality sensors, data acquisition and calibration services, is officially joining Humanetics Group.[24]

In July 2022, Humanetics announces the acquisition of ATD-LabTech GmbH, an independent supplier of testing systems, as well as a service and consulting provider.[25]

Crash test dummies

Humanetics makes a variety of crash test dummies, ranging from newborn infants and adults to the obese and the elderly.[26][27] The company works with agencies and industry groups such as NHTSA, Euro NCAP, and the University of Michigan's International Center for Automotive Medicine (ICAM) to design crash test dummies that reflect changing worldwide demographics.[27] The dummy product line-up includes a range of frontal, side and rear impact and child crash test dummies.[2]

The company's most biologically accurate model is THOR (Test device for Human Occupant Restraint).[2] Humanetics developed THOR with funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).[2] The dummy has 57 sensors that analyze 140 factors such as chest compression, sternum acceleration, and skull shifting.[28] Humanetics produces a THOR-50M representing a 50th percentile adult male, a THOR-5F representing a 5th percentile female, and a THOR-AV 50M and THOR-AV 5F for autonomous vehicle safety testing.[29]

THOR-50M and THOR-5F ATDs

Test dummy certification system

The company also produces the Hybrid III, the established standard for a front-end crash test.[2]

Humanetics 3D prints some of its dummies, a cheaper and faster process versus traditional steel-based dummies, with more durable parts.[18][30] The company uses a micro carbon fiber filled nylon filament from 3D printing company Markforged called Onyx.[18][31]

Humanetics produces a complete portfolio of test fixtures for a crash test laboratory to certify the entire family of existing crash test dummies. This includes tools that enable full body testing as well as all necessary component-level testing of the test dummy body.[32]

The company holds numerous patents for the assembly of ATDs, along with systems to measure their performance in simulated crashes.[33]

The current family of newer advanced ATDs in use today.

Ultra-Flat Overrunable (UFO) robot platform for active safety testing

The company also develops active safety equipment and facilities targeted for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous cars.[17] This includes UFO Nano, an Ultra Flat Overrunnable (UFO) robot platform used to mimic pedestrian behavior, and steering and pedal driving robots.[34][35]

Active safety pedestrian soft target on UFO platform

ADAS testing is centered around evaluating how automated technology in vehicles can help assist motorists with driving and parking functions improving the safety for motorists, pedestrians, and cysclists who use the roadways.[36]

To further ADAS testing, companies such as Humanetics and Foretellix, a provider of Verification & Validation (V&V) platforms for Automated Driving Systems, have joint offerings combining physical and virtual testing of Automated Driving Assisted Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving Systems (ADS).[37]

The European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) is among the first vehicle safety rating bodies to address active safety crash avoidance technology such as Lane Support systems (LSS), Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) and Autonomous Emergency Steering (AES) systems on new cars.[38]

Virtual FE THOR-5F model in test

Humanetics has a large suite of highly detailed and validated finite element crash dummy models for crash simulations to compliment physical product testing.[39]

3D body scanning

Virtual crash testing is becoming more of an interest to new car assessment safety programs such as Euro NCAP who are starting to outline steps to utilize it in more complementary ways with laboratory testing.[38]

Humanetics' Avalution GmbH business unit specializes in 3D body scanning, and owns the largest international database of human body dimensions and shapes.[23]

Humanetics' Human Solutions GmbH business unit develops Ramsis software, considered the industry standard for ergonomic design.[23] Using the Avalution database, Ramsis allows users to create virtual vehicle interiors and custom 3D avatars to simulate vehicle occupants, for safety and ergonomic testing and development.[23]

The Humanetics Software Center of Excellence also offers other digital products including ATD calibration & laboratory management software for the validation and certification of test dummies and load cell instrumentation.[15]

Optical fiber production technicians and machinery

The Sensors unit produces custom industrial load cells, torque sensors and strain gauge-based sensors and specialty optical fiber solutions for medical, aerospace and many other industries.[1]

Technician working on sensor

Humanetics Sensors providers laser processing solutions, combining its core expertise in lasers, optics and laser materials interactions with a high degree of automation while also a leading contract supplier of complex optical fiber assemblies and laser processing services including micro-machining and optical fiber stripping, lensing, fusing and cleaving.[40]

The fiber optic unit combines the capabilities of specialized fiber optics, custom sensors and fiber processing, micromanufacturing and precision engineering to offer customers a unique ability to develop custom fiber sensors for critical environments, at micron precision.[41]

Humanetics also produces a range of instrumentation including safety and ATD load cells, accelerometers, potentiometers and IR-TRACCs (Infra-Red Telescoping Rod for the Assessment of Chest Compression).[15]

Humanetics includes multiple business units:

Safety

• Humanetics, the result of the merger of crash test dummy makers FTSS & Denton ATD Inc.[10]
• mg-sensor GmbH, specialists in the design and development of high-quality sensors, data acquisition and calibration services[24]
• ATD-LabTech GmbH, an independent supplier of testing systems, as well as a service and consulting provider[25]

Digital

• Avalution GmbH, a 3D human body scanning firm[23]
• Human Solutions GmbH, a design firm that provides CAD models of humans for prototype testing[23]

Sensors

• Fibercore, a British manufacturer of specialty optical fibers[14]
• HITEC Sensors, a manufacturer of specialized strain gage applications[6]
• OpTek Systems, a manufacturer of laser processing equipment[21]

Since 2018, Humanetics and its subsidiaries have been owned by private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital.[16] Humanetics has multiple plants in the United States: one at its headquarters in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where it focuses on test dummy instrumentation production, design, and active safety products, another in Huron, Ohio, focusing on crash test dummy manufacturing, assembly, and lab certification, and additional sensor production facilities in Chelmsford, MA and Bangalore, India.[2][42][43][44]

Humanetics CEO, Chris O'Connor

Assembling a crash test dummy at the Humanetics factory in Huron, Ohio USA

The company's fiber optic manufacturing facility is located in Southampton, UK[45] and its laser and micro-machining production operations are based out of Oxford, UK, and Greenville, South Carolina, [46]

Humanetics also has sales and technical facilities worldwide including The Netherlands; Heidelberg, Germany; Linz, Austria; Shanghai, China; and Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan.[47]

In total, Humanetics has over 850 employees across 24 facilities strategically located around the world[1]

Humanetics' President and Chief Executive Officer is Christopher O’Connor.[20] Chris received his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and Master of Science in mechanical and manufacturing engineering from Syracuse University. He is a graduate of the GE Advance Course, GE Crotonville Course, U.S. Army Command, and General Staff College, and has completed executive management courses at Harvard and the University of Michigan.[48]

A study released in 2019 by researchers at the University of Virginia’s Center for Applied Biomechanics shows that women wearing seat belts are significantly more likely to suffer injury than their male counterparts.[49]

THOR-5F female crash test dummy (left) next to the Hybrid-III 5th

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, today's average female is 5.4 inches shorter and 27 pounds lighter than the average male. As a result, females may sit closer to the steering wheel or wear their seatbelts differently from males, increasing the risks to female drivers.[50]

Many industry and social activists have noted that there is a deficit in female crash test dummy representation in safety testing, claiming the current standard frontal female test dummy is just a slightly modified male based on the 50th male Hybrid dummy introduced in the 1970's.[51]

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a March 2023 report to congressional committees on vehicle safety echoed industry concerns and recommended that NHTSA develop a plan to address limitations in the information provided by current crash test dummies and the greater risks certain demographic groups face in vehicle crashes.[52]

One solution to the female crash test equity debate is to incorporate the newest female dummy, NHTSA's THOR-5F, which accurately represents the female body with improvements to the weight and shape of the dummy’s abdomen, arms, legs, sternum, pelvic bone, spine, neck, head and shoulders, and includes more advanced technology to simulate injuries and collect data on how female dummies move during test crashes.[53]

• Official website