Challenges in Selection of Restraints Sensing Configurations in Context of Real World Applications

Restraints systems (airbags and seat belts) have been proven to be very effective in occupant protection in crashes. Timely deployment of these devices is very essential for meeting performance requirements. Precision and reliability in restraints deployments demand selection of a robust sensing configuration that caters to the wide variations of real world. This paper highlights complexities involved in engineering of restraints sensing configurations through different case studies on vehicle programs.

The paper explains the need for restraints sensing configuration optimization and well defined sensing strategies for a robust solution in real world. A methodology is discussed to achieve good discrimination between crashes of different types and severities. Virtual and physical test data collected at different stages of vehicle development is used. It is found that criteria for threshold levels in restraints sensing requires efforts to identify real world usage variations. The limitations of conventional sensing configurations have been resolved based on available data. The challenge is seen to exist in finalizing acceptable trade-off's, so as to have an effective system performance in real world usage conditions. The benefits of evaluating overall vehicle crash safety performance in context of sensing requirements get reflected.