The European Commission has initiated a revision of current safety regulations to account for new developments. VT allows a far wider range of occupant specific characteristics than would ever be viable in physical testing, including factors such as age or size. VIRTUAL will address such limitations and will reach out for new approaches.

In line with current visions about safety on European roads, VIRTUAL will advance beyond the state of the art by providing models, tools and protocols for VT in road safety. With increasing complexity of crash configurations more complex assessment of safety systems is needed to develop and identify the best performing systems. Physical testing by organisations such as Euro NCAP and regulatory bodies are considered costly and limited with respect to test scenarios and available crash test dummies.

For decades, it has been the hope that VT will complement physical testing and thus reduce the number of physical tests needed, as well as address a greater variety of relevant accident scenarios. Despite various advancements in the field this is yet to happen - but will be achieved by the VIRTUAL project. Beyond the contribution to the state of the art, VIRTUAL provides a strong foundation by warehousing current investments in open source tools and resources.

More Information: projectvirtual.eu