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.

How to Interpret Heavy Vehicle EDRs, Day 1

William Messerschmidt
Principal Technical Analyst 

This week marks the third time that the University of Tulsa Continuing Engineering and Science Education (CESE) division has presented the HVEDR class developed by Ron Baade, Dr. Jeremy Daily, and me.

I am very encouraged to see that there are more active law enforcement officers in this session than in either of the two previous sessions. In fact, there are more active officers in this session than in the first two combined!

By design, the first day focuses on general information in HVEDRs. Since this is a developing field, with a great deal of ongoing research, we have tried to teach in a way that develops an understanding of the subject, rather than simply conveying a lot of factoids.

In this 3rd session, the first and third days include expanded sections by Dr. Daily on the communications protocols that are used to communicate ECM (and EDR) data, as well as an explanation of how the ECM transforms analog activity into digital output.

As always, the CESE has drawn an exceptional group of the best forensic engineers and police investigators from across the nation, and as usual, its an exhausting proposition to keep up with such an advanced group of "students." With the general principles explained and demonstrated, tomorrow dives into the specific engine types and the properties of their EDR functions.

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!!!

SAE to Hold 2011 EDR Symposium, June 6-8

Click the image to visit SAE's website and learn more about the event.Kelly Messerschmidt
Technical Communications Manager 

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) will hold an Event Data Recorder (EDR) Symposium at the Institute Conference Center, in Danville, Virginia, June 6-8, 2011.

MSC’s Bill Messerschmidt will be speaking at the EDR Symposium on analyzing driver behavior using HVEDR data, during the second Unique Applications session, on June 8^th. This year’s event marks the fourth EDR Symposium held since 1999.

The SAE 2011 EDR Symposium includes 38 speakers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden. These 38 speakers include university researchers, government researchers, trucking company executives and safety managers, industry engineers and executives, and consultants. Read about the speakers.

Technical sessions include Video Data Recorder applications, Standards Development, Passenger Car EDRs, International Activities, and Unique Applications.

You can learn more about the 2011 EDR Symposium at the SAE website. The links on the page include registration, travel, and exhibitor information, as well as speaker bios and descriptions of the technical sessions.

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.