For its ultimate goal of zero casualties from road traffic accidents, Toyota invested more than 20 years of work since 1997 to create and improve Total Human Model for Safety – or THUMS for short. Today, THUMS is the world’s most advanced virtual human body simulation model.
Toyota made THUMS available free of charge on a dedicated public website at the start of this year, and already 400 users globally have downloaded the application. Use cases of THUMS also include ergonomics studies in non-automotive areas. For example, the THUMS model is used in bed design aimed at bedsore prevention, and also in the design of rackets, American football helmets and shoes for injury prevention.
THUMS has originally been developed as a digital car crash test dummy, which includes all the bones, organs, tissues and tendons found in the human body. The virtual dummy can be a man, woman or child of different ages, and can even take different postures – sitting or walking. This makes THUMS one of the most advanced systems available to simulate and analyse injuries caused by external forces in endless possible scenarios.
Compared to the physical crash dummies commonly used in vehicle collision tests, THUMS is able to analyse collision-related injuries in more detail, because it precisely models the shapes and durability of human bodies while taking into account different gender, age groups and body sizes as well as different postures.
THUMS can help improve safety and comfort in a wider array of applications. This is why Toyota wants to spread the use of THUMS more widely and beyond the automotive industry by making it freely available.
Tjark Kreuzinger, Senior Manager TME R&D Safety Research & Technical Affairs
SOURCE: Toyota
