This week, we received the ATD head from Humanetics! The ATD head is internally equipped with six accelerometers. Three of the accelerometers are piezoresistive, meaning they gain a charge when accelerated, and the magnitude of the charge is a function of the acceleration. The other three are DTS angular rate sensors.

In order to support the ATD head and neck assembly (along with our DAS), we began working on a mount. The mount is converted from a metal workbench, its size and shape being greatly suited for the layout of our acceleration tests. We needed to precisely line up the ATD’s mounting holes onto the bench and drill through the material. Afterwards, we spray painted the bench and inserted wooden boards to protect the DAS, which will be placed underneath. With the mount finished, we can begin testing the ATD with the ball launcher.

Lastly, we began writing a code on LabView that would acquire the data from the accelerometers (in the ATD as well those on the G-Force Tracker).

By Wyatt Moscoso, Concussive Forces in Competitive Sports