Air bag system with biomechanical gray zones
First Claim
1. An occupant restraint system for restraining a vehicle'"'"'s occupant during a vehicle crash event in a fashion where the occupant is restrained such that the occupant does not receive crash induced forces which exceed a set of injury criteria, the restraint system comprising:
- a deployable restraint having a first state configured to impart a first restraining energy upon the occupant and a second state configured to impart a second restraining energy upon the occupant;
a sensor configured to produce a signal indicative of the crash deceleration during the crash event;
a controller configured to receive the signal and send a control signal to the deployable restraint, the controller having a lower must-fire threshold indicative of a minimum change in velocity at which the first state is initiated and a higher must-fire threshold where the second state should be initiated, the controller having a sensing gray zone between the lower must-fire threshold and the higher must-fire threshold, the sensing gray zone being a region where the controller is unable to determine whether to initiate the first state or the second state, the controller further having a biomechanical gray zone defined between the lower must-fire threshold and the higher must-fire threshold, the biomechanical gray zone having a first lower threshold indicative of the highest speed where the first state produces more desirable in-position occupant performance values than no initiation of the restraint, but does not exceed out-of-position occupant performance standards; and
wherein the higher must-fire threshold is the lowest speed where occupant performance with the first state exceeds the injury criteria.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The implementation of dual-stage inflators in some production vehicles is quickly becoming a common reality. A dual-stage inflator has two firing squibs that can fire independently, simultaneously or in a delayed mode. This tailorability provides the ability to fire a low level, high level or staged delay level depending on the impact velocity or other means. For each restraint condition, the inflator output threshold speeds are identified. A biomechanical gray zone, for each injury assessment reference value, is defined based on occupant performance. The upper and lower bound of each biomechanical gray zone is associated with a type of occupant, inflator output, belt restraint and injury parameter.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An occupant restraint system for restraining a vehicle'"'"'s occupant during a vehicle crash event in a fashion where the occupant is restrained such that the occupant does not receive crash induced forces which exceed a set of injury criteria, the restraint system comprising:
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a deployable restraint having a first state configured to impart a first restraining energy upon the occupant and a second state configured to impart a second restraining energy upon the occupant;
a sensor configured to produce a signal indicative of the crash deceleration during the crash event;
a controller configured to receive the signal and send a control signal to the deployable restraint, the controller having a lower must-fire threshold indicative of a minimum change in velocity at which the first state is initiated and a higher must-fire threshold where the second state should be initiated, the controller having a sensing gray zone between the lower must-fire threshold and the higher must-fire threshold, the sensing gray zone being a region where the controller is unable to determine whether to initiate the first state or the second state, the controller further having a biomechanical gray zone defined between the lower must-fire threshold and the higher must-fire threshold, the biomechanical gray zone having a first lower threshold indicative of the highest speed where the first state produces more desirable in-position occupant performance values than no initiation of the restraint, but does not exceed out-of-position occupant performance standards; and
wherein the higher must-fire threshold is the lowest speed where occupant performance with the first state exceeds the injury criteria. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification