The workshop on frontal impact assessment in Tokyo, 4-6 November 2026, will address robustness, defined as the vehicle’s ability to protect occupants of varying body height, weight, shape, and seating position in real-world relevant collisions by maintaining structural integrity and effective safety systems so that the risk of injury is minimized for all types of people. The agenda includes review of relevant regulations, clarification of roles of ATDs and HBMs, and conceptual ideas for future regulatory upgrades addressing brain injury, soft tissue neck injury, lower leg injury, thorax injury, submarining, abdominal loading, and lower severity collisions. The workshop will develop an HBM-based robustness assessment matrix to complement current ATD-based requirements.

This document is background material for the IWG EqOP workshop on equity issues in frontal crashes relevant for restraint systems scheduled for November 2026 in Tokyo. The workshop aims to draft conceptual ideas for a procedure to assess robustness by complementing current specific requirements based on ATDs using a more holistic approach. Robustness is defined as the vehicle’s ability to protect occupants of variation in body height, weight, shape, and seating position in real-world relevant collisions by maintaining structural integrity and effective safety systems. The reading list addresses field data, real-world needs, characteristics of frontal collisions, current regulations including UN R16, UN R94, UN R137, human body model readiness, injury prediction strategies, and regulatory solutions including Euro NCAP approaches, informed by GRSP-78-07.