Welcome to the home page of the
Vehicle Systems and Safety Program at PTI

The Vehicle Systems and Safety Program, directed by Dr. Zoltan Rado, studies the design, simulation, and testing of vehicle components and of vehicles interacting with their environment. Facilities maintained by the program permit research and testing on buses, trucks, trains and locomotives, and automobiles, including hybrid, electric, and other alternative-fuel vehicles.

The Vehicle Systems and Safety Program has expertise in a broad range of vehicle- related areas including bus research and testing; vehicle tracking systems based on inertial measurements; alternative-fuel, hybrid, and electric vehicles; crash safety research; skid tester design, correlation, and calibration, and pavement skid resistance; tire finite element dynamic simulation; fuel cells; battery, ultra capacitor and flywheel energy systems; pavement texture/profile; and truck escape ramp design. The program also has substantial know-how and capabilities in Intelligent Vehicle Systems research areas such as wireless communication, satellite communication, GPS and inertial navigation, remote monitoring of mechanical systems, and synthetic vision systems for aircraft and snowplows. The program has aimed for excellence in its research, which is sponsored by government agencies and private suppliers. This excellence has been achieved by assembling multidisciplinary teams dedicated to analytical, collaborative research.

The Vehicle Systems and Safety Program is comprised of seven specialized research centers: the Bus Testing and Research Center, administered by the Federal Transit Administration; the Advanced Energy Storage Center, established through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Graduate Automotive Technology Education (GATE) Program; the Crash Safety Research Center, a joint venture between PTI’s Vehicle Systems and Safety Program and Transportation Infrastructure Program; the Electrochemical Engine Center, a joint venture between PTI’s Vehicle Systems and Safety Program and Penn State’s Department of Mechanical Engineering; the Vehicle Systems Simulation Research Center, including a full-scale truck driving simulator and advanced vehicle and finite element component simulation software; and the Center for Navigation, Communication and Information Systems established by PTI and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, which focuses on the integration of navigation, wireless and satellite communication, and information technologies for application in vehicle systems