I hope the week has been treating you well, it’s been a wild one here. Trial testimony all day Monday, followed by Lightpoint’s four-day photogrammetry course. Fortunately, we heard from the jury, and they provided a verdict showing they understood our analysis and found it useful.

A major component of that analysis was recreating a roadway feature that allegedly caused a motorcyclist to lose control. We recreated the feature, piloted an exemplar motorcycle through it, and evaluated its response (by examining on-board data and video). The biggest hurdle to such an exploration is creating a replica of the roadway feature, which is where this week’s topic comes in.

​Exponent has a 147-acre Test and Engineering Center (TEC) in Phoenix that facilitates challenging explorations. They have a track, skid pad, motion cap studio, vehicle crash rail, machine shop, ATD lab, etc. On my recent case, they constructed the roadway feature to our specs, and I was able to trailer the exemplar motorcycle out there for testing. It was a very direct way of answering the question at hand (granted also very high effort), and the jury found it to be useful in their evaluation of the facts.

While most cases don’t warrant testing of that magnitude, when you need some extra fire power, it’s great to know such a valuable resource exists. If you find yourself in need of the amenities TEC can provide, I recommend reaching out to James Tobin. He knows his stuff and is excellent to work with.

Thanks for reading, keep exploring!

Lou Peck
​Lightpoint | Axiom

P.S. Robot FTW.