DRI-Minter
Other Locations
Instrumentation and Test Support Equipment

DRI-Minter

DRI can support many types of full scale vehicle test programs. We have a proprietary vehicle dynamics area (VDA) test facility, located at the Minter airport, near Bakersfield California. This area is suitable for vehicle handling, braking and ride tests, evaluations of advanced collision avoidance technologies, pass-by noise measurements, and studies of driver behavior. Some specific examples of tests commonly done include:

• NHTSA “Fishhook” rollover resistance tests
• FMVSS 126 (electronic stability control) tests
• Forward collision warning (FCW) tests
• Lane departure warning (LDW) tests
• Collision imminent braking (CIB) tests

The VDA was constructed in early 2005, with Wilcox Associates, specialists in proving ground development, acting as the prime contractor.

DRI has been conducting tests for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in support of various programs. Beginning with the 2006 model year DRI has been conducting rollover resistance tests at the VDA in support of the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). In 2009, DRI began conducting FMVSS 126 tests for NHTSA. In 2010, DRI began conducting FCW and LDW tests for the NCAP.

Instrumentation and vehicle preparation are normally accomplished at DRI's shops in Torrance. The vehicles are then driven or transported to the test area, and support vehicles are available for that purpose.

As shown, a 1300 foot long, 32 foot wide run up lane leads onto the main maneuvering area, which is 300 feet wide and 800 feet long, including the throat. Shop and office space is provided near to the VDA, and there are additional secure indoor and outdoor storage areas. The shop is well equipped with hand tools, a vehicle lift, tire changing machine, welder, wheel-weigher scales, water dummies, etc, to support vehicle testing.

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Other Locations

DRI can also support on and off road test in locations throughout Southern California, and can travel to other locations as well. In addition to the testing noted above at DRI-Minter, examples of test programs have included:

• Trailer towing tests at proving grounds in various U.S. states
• Over-the-road ride tests on various roads in the Los Angeles area
• Over-the-road driver behavior studies in the Los Angeles area
• Vehicle handling and ride tests (e.g., Fishhook, FMVSS 126) conducted at clients’ proving grounds

To support off-site and out of state testing, instrumentation and other equipment can be pre-shipped to the site.

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Instrumentation and Test Support Equipment

Vehicle instrumentation and test preparation is an area of special expertise at DRI. Available equipment includes a wide variety of sensors, signal conditioning and portable and ruggedized data acquisition systems. A few examples of high quality sensors available at DRI include:

• Oxford Inertial+ inertial measurement units (IMUs)
• Endevco, Silicon Designs, and Honeywell accelerometers
• Trimble RTK-type GPS receivers and base station used for differential GPS measurement
• SpeedBox speed sensors
• Systron Donner angular rate sensors
• Lebow load cells
• Somat eDAQ data acquisition system
• FaroArm coordinate measurement machine

Automatic vehicle controllers are also commonly used.

“NHTSA-style” (standard size) outriggers are available for use in Fishhook and FMVSS 126 testing. DRI has extensive experience in designing and fabricating brackets to mount the outriggers to specific vehicles. Outriggers for other types of vehicles (e.g., motorcycles, side-by-side off-road vehicles) are also available, or can be designed and fabricated as necessary. DRI has a well-equipped machine shop, with mills, lathe, drill press, welders, plasma cutter, etc, as well as a vehicle lift, tire changing and balancing machines, wheel-weigher scales, and other devices needed for fabrication and test preparation.

An array of video cameras, recording equipment and high speed photographic equipment is available, as are video and film analyzers for frame-by-frame analysis.

Additional equipment to support vehicle crash tests includes a range of Hybrid and ISO crash dummies, associated sensors and dummy internal or external data recording systems. (pictures to include aerial shot of VDA and additional pictures, including picture of lane markings on run-up area, picture of shop, picture of hangar, several pictures of instrumentation, picture of machine shop, tire changer and balancer).

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