How to Interpret Heavy Vehicle EDR Data, Day 3

William Messerschmidt
Principal Technical Analyst 

Today marked the third day of the TU HVEDR class, which is the day we set aside for field work and demonstrations.

In the morning, participants got to begin hands-on ECM downloads of Detroit Diesel, Caterpillar, and Cummins ECMs. Dr. Daily and his graduate students also assisted in demonstrating actual data transmissions over the J1939 network.

Freightliner of Tulsa brought a brand new 2012 Freightliner Cascadia with DDEC 10 electronics. Participants got to download the truck using DDEC Reports and DDDL 7 software and see (on a clean, new truck) the parts specific to Sustained Catalytic Reduction (SCR), like the Aftertreatment Control Module (ACM) and Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) tank.

In the afternoon, we went to the Tulsa Fairgrounds and had the chance to test two fully instrumented Kenworth tractors, which were donated by Melton Transportation. Tests were performed with a Road Relay 4 attached, with a Safety Pass Pro attached, and with parameter changes made to some of the trucks' parameters. Using a Video VBox 4, we were able to capture CAN data on vehicle speed, engine speed brake, and clutch status (and other parameters as well).

Thanks to the assistance of the Tulsa Fire Department, Freightliner of Tulsa, Melton Transportation, today's field day was a very successful event!

How to Interpret Heavy Vehicle EDRs, Day 2

William Messerschmidt
Principal Technical Analyst 

The second day of Tulsa University CESE's class on HVEDR data begins the focus on specific engine manufacturers.

This morning, Ron Baade discussed and demonstrated the ECM and EDR data in Detroit Diesel and Mercedes Benz engines, including DDEC IV - DDEC 10, and the 2001 - 2008 MBE engines.

During the afternoon, I taught the section on Cummins ECMs, beginning with the 2002 ISX and ISM heavy duty engines, through the CM2250 and CM2150 EPA 2010 engines. Topics included data limitations, the effects of power failure, anomalies that have been found in the data, fault data (diagnostic trouble codes), and case studies.

In the evening, Ron, Jeremy Daily, and I went to Melton Trucking and began to prep the test trucks for tomorrow's testing. The trucks will include two 2012 Kenworths, and a 2012 Freightliner. In tomorrow's class, Dr. Daily will be presenting more information and examples of CAN data.

SAE EDR Symposium: Day 2, Session 5

Bill Messerschmidt
Manager, MSC 

The final session of the SAE 2011 Highway Vehicle Event Data Recorder (EDR) Symposium - a fine event - was the second Unique Applications.

The first speaker was Dave Plant from Washington, D.C. Mr. Plant spoke about research with the new DDEC 10 ECM system. Impressively, he was able to not only describe the new attributes of the DDEC 10, but he also compared this new system to the results of both SAE 2010-01-1004, which he co-authored (dealing with power loss and key signal requirements) and SAE 2001-01-0808, which dealt with data retrieval methods in other Detroit Diesel engines (and which Dave was the lead author of). Most interestingly, the DDEC 10 is a three-module system, with an additional module that controls emissions.

The second speaker was John Brophy from NHTSA. Mr. Brophy discussed the NHTSA NASS, SCI, and CIREN programs. These projects are currently collecting data, including EDR data, on thousands of crashes each year to be used in various highway safety projects (such as Dr. Gabler's work, which was discussed on Day 1). For example, between 2007-2009, NASS and SCI conducted 21,000 vehicle inspections, collecting approximately 600 data points per crash.

The third speaker was yours truly, discussing driver braking behavior in heavy vehicle (HV) crashes. My research attempts to use HVEDR data for the purpose of determining the characteristics of HV operator braking responses in crash and near-miss events. The research was able to demonstrate similar braking behavior between the HV operators and research respondents in testing of passenger vehicle drivers.

The final speaker was Balaji Yelchuru, who discussed using EOBR and on-vehicle technologies for green transportation. There seems to be a great deal that electronic real-time data can do, not just for our immediate safety as road users, but also for our environmental health and well being.

Well, that's a wrap. I hope those who followed my live blogging found it enjoyable, and I hope to see you at future SAE events!!!

MSC Participates in the 2011 SAE World Congress

Benjamin Smith
Principal Technical Analyst, MSC of MS

For the third consecutive year, MSC was involved with the publication and presentation of new research for the SAE World Congress. This year MSC was represented by Benjamin Smith who coauthored a new research paper, "Data Extraction Methods and their Effects on the Retention of Event Data Contained in the Electronic Control Modules of Detroit Diesel and Mercedes-Benz Engines," (SAE 2011-01-0808), with David Plant and Timothy Austin.

This paper was presented along with research such as Ruth and Daily's paper on Event Data Recorder (EDR) accuracy, Bare, Everest, Floyd, and Nunan's research paper on sensing diagnostic module (SDM) pre-crash data transfer, and Austin and Farrell's paper on Caterpillar Electronic Control Module (ECM) snapshot data. In addition to the research papers presented, some of the technical sessions and discussions addressed accident reconstruction topics including drag sled accuracy and usage, forensic photogrammetry, and diesel engine retarder acceleration rates. 

More About the DD-15

The DD-15 is such a cool engine that we couldn't help posting one more picture of it, this one from the passenger side of the tractor. Some of the things we learned on the forensics side were that there is much more calibration data in this ECM (which makes sense since its a more sophisticated motor); the proclivity of the clock-time to "drift" still exists (an endearing little tick!); and the DDEC Reports data are pretty much identical.

The links below have some info on the DD-15.

DD-15 Brochure (PDF):

http://www.detroitdiesel.com/pdf/engines/2009-dd15-brochure.pdf

A comparison of DDC's engines:

http://www.detroitdiesel.com/engines/compare.aspx

The DD-15 homepage:

http://www.detroitdiesel.com/engines/dd15/