Opening up one's patent books has become a bit of a fashion in the motoring world. First Volvo did with the three-point seatbelt, then Tesla did it with battery tech, and now Toyota is at it with THUMS.
3D digital recreation of a human body
What's a THUMS? It's Total Human Model for Safety, and it's essentially a 3D digital recreation of a human body, that can be used to help push forward the development of safety technology. Because the THUMS software reacts in a digital environment the way a real human body would in the real world, it can be used to more accurately model and develop safety technology in computer simulations. Not only is that cheaper than building real-world prototypes, it considerably speeds up the early development process.
Toyota will release the latest THUMS model in January of next year. The latest Version Six was released last year, it has continually evolved to add a range of models with different genders, ages and physiques that include skeletal structures, brains, internal organs, and muscles.
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. Conducting simulations on computers also enables repeated analysis of a range of different collision patterns. The software can replicate child and adult bodies, and works for both pedestrian and vehicle occupant settings.
'To improve motor safety for all'
Commenting on the announcement Steve Tormey, CEO of Toyota Ireland said: 'Toyota consistently leads from the front when it comes to improving the future outlook and wellbeing of both our planet and its inhabitants. Today's announcement, along with the provision of royalty-free licenses on nearly 24,000 patents for vehicle electrification-related technologies that we announced last year, are just two examples of our Built for a Better World brand promise coming to life in innovative and demonstrable ways. We see the free access to THUMS to all vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, academics and others as being vitally important and underpins our relentless intention to holistically improve motor safety for all.'
THUMS is currently already in use by 100 vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, universities, research institutions and others, in Japan and elsewhere. It's so accurate a simulation that, apparently, independent crash testing organisations are considering using it for virtual crash tests.
'Help to reduce traffic injuries'
Seigo Kuzumaki, Fellow at Advanced R&D and Engineering Company, offered the following comment about free access to THUMS: "Since the very first launch of THUMS in 2000, we've been making ongoing improvements and avidly working to better reproduce the human anatomy and expand the variations of models. It has now become indispensable technology to Toyota's efforts in developing safety technologies and vehicles. We decided to make the software freely available to have more people use it, to further enhance vehicle safety across the entire automotive industry, and to help reduce traffic injuries and fatalities to create a safer society. We look forward to seeing it applied broadly in development sites and others, envisioning a mobility society with automated vehicles and other technologies, moving forward."