Accelerometer based devices for detecting the presence and seating posture/position of vehicle occupants

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Accelerometer based devices for detecting the presence and seating posture/position of vehicle occupants

Browne, A.L. / Stephenson, D.A. / Kiel, W.

Virtually all passenger cars and light trucks and vans being sold in the United States will have driver and outboard front seat passenger supplemental inflatable restraints (SIR's) by the end of the decade. Current usage and stated plans are for a common sensing and controller system for both airbags in such vehicles. This implies that both bags will deploy when a sufficiently severe crash is detected. A study was undertaken to determine whether a combination of seat and floorpan mounted accelerometers could be used to discriminate between different seating situations including empty seats, normally seated occupants, severly out-of-position occupants, and infants/children in infant/child seats. This successful research study involved road testing over a limited range of passenger, roadway, and operating conditions. An example is given of how information from such an accelerometer based detection scheme could be incorporated in SIR controller logic trees.