Synchronization of Measuring Devices for Forensic Crash Testing

The measurement of the dynamic parameters of vehicle motion is usually carried out by measuring the velocity of motion, accelerations and angular velocities in all three axes. For research applications, e.g. the DAS-3 with microwave velocity sensor from Corrsys Datron GmbH (now part of the Kistler Group) and the PicDaq5 from Dr. Steffan Datentechnik GmbH are used for this purpose. If the movement of the vehicle also needs to be documented by video, these three measuring devices need to be synchronized in time, e.g. by light pulses for the video and electrical pulses for the speed and acceleration meters. This paper describes the technical solution of the synchronization device, triggered manually during driving tests or by a ribbon switch in the case of measurements during crash tests.