Location
UMTRI
2901 Baxter Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Phone
(734) 936-1069
Primary Website
umtri.umich.edu
Pronouns
he/him/his
Education/Training
- Commercial Driver License (Bus and Group A with tanker, bus, and multi-trailer endorsements), 2005
- MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1988
- BS, Naval Architecture, University of Michigan, 1986
Research Interests/Areas of Expertise/Responsibilities
Since joining UMTRI in 1989, Scott has been involved in a variety of research projects aimed at determining the mechanical performance characteristics of motor vehicles (passenger and heavy-truck) and understanding the task of driving as it pertains to driver behavior in response to warning and active control safety and convenience systems. He has worked directly with the project director in sixteen of UMTRI’s field operational test (FOT) in the capacity of planning, budgeting, collaborating with partners and subcontractors, briefing the sponsor, coordinating vehicle up-fit, implementing data handling and analysis procedures and writing reports and technical papers for publication. He plays an active role in the preparation and conduct of research by working in the field to make sure the test vehicles are properly equipped and operating as designed. In tests that require system verification, Scott has experience in planning; executing and documenting test procedures to verify that vehicle and system performance meet or exceed functional requirements.
Key Projects
Safety Effectiveness of a Collision Mitigation Braking (CMB) System for Commercial Vehicles (NHTSA)—this study involved using fleet case studies, crash data analysis, naturalistic driving data, and test track evaluation of a CMB to develop an analytical approach to estimate the benefit of CMB (alone and in conjunction with other active safety systems) in the reduction of crash severity and related societal harm measured in terms of human suffering as well as economic loss. Scott’s role in this study was to conduct and document the test track evaluation of two CMB systems and develop a technology model that predicts the benefit of CMB in terms of reduced impact speeds for a variety of factors including test conditions, CMB functional performance, driver performance, and other confounding active safety technologies like Adaptive Cruise Control.
Large Scale/Naturalistic Field Operational Tests—these studies involve the collection of data from many thousands of privately owned vehicles being driven naturalistically by their owners. Three of these tests have or currently are being conducted. One involves tracking older drivers over a multiyear period to study how driving behavior changes with age. Other tests study the effect of longitudinal and lateral warning and active control technology on driving behavior. In all tests, Scott led the effort to design and populate the database for the analysis of these data archives. He also plays a major role in building secondary tables for analysis to support his own research and the research of others on the team, including the partners and stakeholders. Scott also plays a role in the state of health monitoring using algorithms to identify issues with vehicles and devices in the field.
Safety Pilot Model Deployment—this research was conducted to demonstrate the readiness of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) wireless safety applications for nationwide deployment. The project addressed issues of driver safety, driver distraction, privacy, security, and wireless communication in real-world driving scenarios. Over 3700 vehicles participated in the study including trucks, buses, motorcycles, passenger cars, and bicycles. Scott’s main role was data architect. This involved designing and implementing database technology to archive all over-the-air messages, all data collected by over 120 UMTRI data loggers, and all messages received by the road-side units.