There has been significant worldwide press coverage of the injuries and deaths caused by airbags in recent years. It is primarily when occupants interact with the still-inflating airbag that inflation-related injuries occur. Out-of-position occupants are still at risk. Many airbag suppliers continue to develop new occupant sensing technologies that can determine if an occupant is too close to an airbag for safe deployment. The state-of-the-art in crash sensing systems two years ago relied on sensors integrated in the airbag controller housing. The airbag controller is typically packaged on a central and stiff area of the vehicle floor. From this location, the controller's internal sensors have a good 'view' of crash forces pushing against the front of the vehicle. The vehicle structure must transmit the crushing forces from the front of the vehicle back to the occupant compartment for the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) to measure. The large crushing forces to the front of the vehicle are delayed and diminished before they reach the ECU and its sensors. The signals can be reduced to the point where it is difficult to discern the difference between minor and major collisions within the time necessary to ensure proper airbag deployment. Many crash-sensing algorithms require the DeltaV of the crash event to exceed a minimum threshold before the deployment decision is made. The weaker the minimimum DeltaV threshold, the more likely the system may be to deploying airbags in low severity events. The signal separation between non-deploy event signals and must-deploy event signals is a measure of the sensing system's robustness. A crash sensing system using an ECU alone may have a lower minimum DeltaV threshold for deployments than a system that combines the ECU with a Front Crash Satellite (FCS). A system with a greater minimum DeltaV threshold can make a significant reduction of the frequency of deployments in low severity events.
Advanced crash severity sensor performance: A real world study
Verbesserte Sensorik zur Bestimmung der Unfallschwere
10 Seiten, 7 Bilder, 1 Tabelle
Conference paper
English
Advanced Crash Severity Sensor Performance: A Real-World Study
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2000
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