Experimental Investigation and Safety Classification Evaluation of Small Drone Collision with Humans

The safety of small drones in collision with humans has become a key focus in engineering and research fields. This study presents a vertical drop test platform for collision tests involving three representative drones (Air, Mavic 2, and M200) impacting the head of a Hybrid III dummy from different heights and orientations. The deformation and damage of the drones during various collision scenarios, as well as the dynamic responses of the dummy head and neck, are analyzed. The head injury criterion (HIC), together with 3 ms cumulative acceleration (head acc 3 ms), are used to evaluate head injury, while the shear force, axial force, as well as bending moment are applied to evaluate neck injury. The effects of drone type, drop height, and drone collision position on dummy head and neck injury risk are comprehensively analyzed, as well as the quantitative relations between the head and neck injury metrics, and the drop height for the three typical drones are derived. Via the acquired equations, the head and neck injury risks for the three typical drones involved in this study and other similar drones falling from distinct heights shall be predicted. This study proposes a novel method focusing on classifying the safety grades of drone collision with dummy. The safety grades for these three typical drones are categorized via the drop height. The findings further provide crucial data and analytical methods for establishing drone safety standards.